KARACHI, Dec 7: A police inspector was sentenced to four years imprisonment by an anti-corruption court on Wednesday.

Din Mohammad Mazari was found guilty of misusing his official authority to take the custody of a stolen vehicle by using forged documents.

However, the court exonerated co-accused head constable Hanif Khanzada for want of evidence.

The judge of the special anti-corruption court, Karachi, Rashida Asad, who conducted the trial, pronounced the order after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 and in case of non-payment, the policeman would undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

According to the judgment, in the light of the evidence that came up on record, including the testimonies of witnesses and documentary substantiation, the charges against Mazari was proved beyond a shadow of a doubt.

The documents placed before the court showed that the accused got the custody of a stolen car by fraudulently making documents in the name of Hidaytullah, it added.

The court further observed that it appeared to be the most dangerous practice that police were using stolen or snatched vehicles.

However, the court ruled that the case of the co-accused was on a different footing as no concrete evidence was available against him to prove his involvement in the present case.

According to the prosecution, Dr Kamal Ahmed was abducted with his car in Clifton in 1998 and the police recovered the vehicle a day after the incident, but concealed the recovery of the vehicle and deposited it in the central vehicle pool (Nazarat).

But the accused on the basis of forged documents got the stolen vehicle registered with the excise department in the name of a false owner, Hidaytullah.

Subsequently, it was released from Nazarat and came under the use of the accused, it added.

A case (FIR No.68/2009) was registered against the policemen under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant or by banker, merchant), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act at the anti-corruption establishment.

Both the accused were on bail and present in the courtroom and following the pronouncement of the order, the convict was taken into custody and sent to prison with a conviction warrant to serve out the awarded sentence.