KARACHI: A police officer and his accomplice were remanded in police custody on Thursday by an administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts in a kidnapping for ransom case.

Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Zafar Abbas and Manzoor Shah, along with their absconding accomplices, have been booked for allegedly kidnapping transporter Abdul Rahim Mengal in a Malir locality and demanding ransom for his release in Dec 2015.

The administrative judge of the ATCs in Karachi, Justice Syed Mohammad Farooq Shah of the Sindh High Court, handed the suspects over to the police on a seven-day physical remand.

Later, the prosecution said that they set the captive free after receiving the ransom of over Rs6.8 million.

The investigating officer produced the suspects in court after they were shown arrested on Feb 10, and submitted that the ransom amount of one million rupees was found in their custody. The accomplices fled to the interior of Sindh with the remaining amount.

He sought custody of the suspects for questioning and arrest of the absconding suspects.

The ASI was said to be the SHO Mobina Town when he, along with others, allegedly abducted the victim and his business partner Mohammad Yasin near the district courts in Malir on Dec 18. Later, he was suspended and demoted from sub-inspector to ASI on complaints of corruption, keeping citizens in wrongful detention, etc.

A case was lodged on the complaint of the victim under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for extorting property, etc) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Malir city police station. Amanullah, Zahid Shah and Roshan Solangi are still at large.

It may be recalled that the Rangers arrested ASI Akram Khan for similar allegations along with his accomplices last month in the Gharibabad area when they came in a police van of the Pakistan Bazaar police station to collect ransom from the brother of the captive.

Man jailed for 24 years in arms and explosive cases

An antiterrorism court sentenced on Thursday a man to a total of 24 years in prison in explosive material and illicit weapon cases.

Mohammad Hamdani was found guilty of carrying hand grenades and unlicensed weapon in 2014 in Mithadar.

ATC-V Judge Mohammed Javed Alam handed down 14 years imprisonment in explosive substances and 10 years in illicit weapon cases. However, both sentences would run concurrently and the longest term will be counted as the total imprisonment.

Published in Dawn, February 12th, 2016