October 12, 2008	Sunday	Shawwal 12, 1429

KARACHI, Oct 11: An Anti-Terrorism Court on Saturday sentenced to life imprisonment two men for kidnapping and murdering their friend.

Judge Anand Ram Hatwani convicted Faiq Ahmed and Waqas alias Vikki after the prosecution proved its case against the accused.

Mubbashir Ahmed Mirza was the special public prosecutor.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on each convict.

The sentence of rigorous life imprisonment was awarded to the convicts on the basis of circumstantial evidence against them as they were arrested while collecting ransom, the judge wrote in the verdict.

According to the prosecution, Faiq and Waqas kidnapped 21-year-old Sikandar, who was their close friend, from Sarwar Shaheed Road on 11 March, 2007 after they came to know that Sikandar was going abroad and his family had transferred a large amount of money to his bank account. The victim’s father was living in the US and the victim was living here along with his sister.

The accused contacted the victim’s family and demanded a ransom of Rs1 million. The family secretly approached police who started tracing the kidnappers’ phone calls. After negotiations, the kidnappers reduced their demand to Rs145,000 and asked the family to come to a local hospital in North Nazimabad for the payment of ransom. However, the police surrounded the area and arrested the accused on March 15, 2007 when the victim’s uncle was delivering them the money.

The police recovered a mobile phone with a SIM and a rented car in which they had kidnapped their friend. During the investigation, they disclosed that they had strangled the victim and thrown his body in a drain in the limits of Khawaja Ajmer Nagri police station. On their indication, police recovered the body in the presence of a prosecution witness.

A formal kidnapping and murder case was registered at Jauharabad police station in March 2007, on the complaint of the deceased’s brother-in-law, Rizwan.

A charge-sheet was presented before the administrative judge of the ATC who sent the case for trial.

The accused were indicted under Sections 365-A and 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code with Section 7-A and E of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997. The court examined 11 prosecution witnesses.