July 17, 2008	Thursday	Rajab 13, 1429

KARACHI, July 16: Judge Haq Nawaz Baloch of the Anti-terrorism Court-V on Wednesday recorded final arguments from both sides in a kidnap for ransom case and reserved the judgment for pronouncement on July 28.

According to the prosecution, Nadeem-ul-Haq, Attaullah Shah, Amir Hussain, Mehmood Bilal, Mohammad Rafiq and Mohammad Rashid kidnapped Noreen Ali and her friends, Badal Masih and Shan Masih, from University Road on December 19, 2007 and demanded Rs0.5 million as ransom. However, they agreed to accept Rs50,000 for the release of the captives.

Badal Masih alleged that three of the kidnappers were in police uniform.

The accused collected the ransom at the Star Gate after which they were chased by the Criminal Investigation Department police. The accused were intercepted and challenged at a place in the PECHS. A shootout took place and they were forced to surrender. The police also recovered illegal weapons from their custody. In all 15 prosecution witnesses had been produced in court.

In his final arguments, Mushtaq Ahmed, the defence counsel for Attaullah Shah and Mehmood Bilal, argued that the case was investigated by the CID operation branch, which was not authorised under the Police Order 2002 to investigate any case. Besides, there were glaring contradictions in the statements of the witnesses, he said, adding that the prosecution also changed the place of incident.

The defence counsel said it was not mentioned in the police file that the ransom was recovered from possession of the accused. He concluded that the prosecution failed to prove its case and pleaded to acquit his clients giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Javed Chhatari and Mubasher Ali, who represented other accused, said the prosecution did not provide sufficient evidence to prove its case and pleaded for the acquittal of their clients.

The special public prosecutor pleaded for capital punishment, saying that the prosecution had successfully proved its case against the accused by providing enough evidence in court.

A case (FIR 112/2007) was registered under Sections 170, 171, 365-A, 392, 353, 324/34 of PPC on the complaint of Shan Masih.