KARACHI, Jan 28: An appellate bench of the Sindh High Court on Friday acquitted four lifers convicted in a kidnapping for ransom case.

The bench headed by Justice Gulzar Ahmed ordered the immediate release of Muhammed Ramzan, Muhammed Akbar, Abdul Ghafoor and Muhammed Atif from custody if they were not required in any other case.

The four were convicted on May 30, 2009 by Judge Anand Ram Hotwani of the Anti-Terrorism Court No. 3 who sentenced them to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and forfeiture of their properties to the extent of Rs50,000 for kidnapping a businessman.

According to the prosecution, Muhammed Naseem lodged an FIR at the Sir Syed police station that his brother, Mohammad Naeem, a property dealer, was kidnapped on August 24, 2006 and the kidnappers demanded $3.5 million for his release.

The victim, who remained in the captivity of the kidnappers, finally escaped on Sept 9, 2006 and later led the police to the place where he had allegedly been kept by his captors.

The police on Dec 12, 2006 arrested Muhammed Ramzan in Jhang, Punjab, on another lead of the victim.

Accused Muhammed Akbar was arrested on Dec 15, 2006 and Abdul Ghafoor and Atif on Dec 18 in Karachi.

The appellants were represented by Advocate Abdul Razzak and Deputy Prosecutor General Khadim Hussain appeared on behalf of the state.

The bench issued a short order that said: “Heard arguments of the advocates for the parties at length. For the reasons to be recorded later, the appeal is allowed and impugned judgment is set aside and appellants are acquitted. The appellants are directed to be released from custody immediately if not required in any other case”.

CDGK, NAB fined

While allowing a petition, a division bench comprising Justices Mushir Alam and Syed Zakir Hussain imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the City District Government Karachi and the National Accountability Bureau, ordering them to recover it from the “delinquent officers”.

Petitioner Muhammed Nasir had approached the SHC for getting a plot transferred in his name.

He submitted that he had purchased a plot in Nazimabad against a registered conveyance deed on Aug 22, 1996.

The petitioner stated that the CDGK raised objections when he went to get the plot transferred and mutated in his name. He said that the CDGK informed him that the subject property was involved in an FIR (17/1996) registered by the Federal Investigation Agency and asked him to bring a no-objection certificate from the FIA.

The petitioner stated that he went to the FIA and asked about the fate of the FIR from them. He said that the FIA people told him that the FIR had been converted into a NAB reference, which was pending disposal before an accountability court.

However, he said, later it became clear from the record that the subject property was never involved in the FIR, nor was it in issue under the NAB reference when the matter was sent to NAB for trial.

He prayed to the court to direct the CDGK to transfer and mutate the subject property and its record in his name.

Allowing the petition, the court observed in its short order: “For the reasons to follow, this petition is allowed with cost of Rs100,000 against Respondent No. 1 [CDGK] and Respondent No. 4 [NAB] to be recovered from the delinquent officers”. The petitioner was represented by Advocate Muhammed Shafi Siddiqui. NAB’s prosecutor Aslam Butt, Deputy Attorney General Mian Khan Malik, and CDGK counsel Riaz Ahmed were also present.