KARACHI, Sept 13: A case lodged under anti-terror law against an under-trial prisoner for extending criminal intimidation to a judicial magistrate during a court trial on Thursday was referred to a regular court instead of an anti-terrorism court on the ground that it did not attract the anti-terror law.

Mohammad Rizwan was booked by the city courts police under the Anti-Terrorism Act on a complaint of a judicial magistrate on Wednesday for extending criminal intimidation to him and breaching the decorum of court.

The investigation officer brought the UTP to an anti-terrorism court for remand on Thursday.

However, the public prosecutor of ATC-III Abdul Maroof directed the investigation officer to produce the suspect before the relevant magistrate, observing that the contents of the FIR were not compatible with the section pertaining to the ATA.

The sections of the Pakistan Penal Code cited in the FIR also did not fall within the ambit of ATA, therefore, the remand may be sought from the area magistrate, he added.

According to the FIR, Mohammad Rizwan was booked in a case (FIR No 1102/12) under Section 13-D of Arms Ordinance at the Zaman Town police station and he was brought from prison and produced before the court of a judicial magistrate (east), Aleem Ahmed, on Wednesday for hearing. The court adjourned the case due to the absence of prosecution witnesses. However, the adjournment enraged the UTP, who slammed his head against a wall in the courtroom, smashed windowpanes, hurled threats at the judicial magistrate of dire consequences and also manhandled a policeman escorting him, it added.

The judicial magistrate directed the city courts SHO to book Mohammad Rizwan under Sections 228 (intentional insult or interruption to public servant sitting in judicial proceeding), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

A case (FIR No 91/12) was lodged against the UTP under the same sections on a complaint of the magistrate at city courts police station.

Meanwhile, a judicial magistrate (south) sent the UTP to jail on a judicial remand in the case.

Bail dismissed

An anti-terrorism court on Thursday dismissed a bail application of a suspected gangster after in a riot case.

Sajjad Khatri said to be associated with one of the several criminal gangs operating in Lyari and around 10 others have been booked for allegedly attacking police and setting vehicles on fire during a police operation in Lyari in April-May this year.

Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III dismissed the plea after hearing arguments from both sides.

The suspects were booked in the case (FIR No 121/12) registered at the Baghdadi police station under Sections 147, 149, 324, 353, 427, 435, 109 and 34 of the PPC.