KARACHI, July 9: An anti-terrorism court recorded on Tuesday statements of the accused in a case pertaining to the murder of a journalist.

Faisal Mahmood alias Nafsiati, Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh alias Mani, Naveed alias Polka and Shakil alias Malik have been charged with killing Wali Khan Babar, a reporter of a private TV channel, on Jan 13, 2011 in Liaquatabad.

The judge, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, of the ATC-III, who is conducting the trial inside the central prison, recorded the statements in which the accused denied the allegations levelled against them by the prosecution.

The hearing was adjourned till July 23 for final arguments.

On a previous hearing, the prosecution had rested its side after examining about 15 witnesses.

Around six witnesses have been gunned down prior to their testimonies before the trial court.

Suspected hit man remanded

The same court on Tuesday remanded a suspect in prison in a double murder case.

Rizwan Qureshi, said to be an alleged hit man, was reproduced before the court after the ending of his physical remand for his alleged involvement in the murder of Maulana Mohammad Ajmal and Kamal Shah, who were gunned down on Jan 18 on New M.A. Jinnah Road.

The judge sent him to jail on judicial remand till July 20 and directed the IO to submit charge-sheet on next hearing.

According to the prosecution, both the deceased belonged to the Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-i-Nubuwwat and were targeted in front of the Islamia College.

IO in murder case changed

A judicial magistrate was told on Tuesday that an investigating officer of a murder case had been replaced and the newly-appointed IO had sought time for submission of a charge-sheet.

Mansoor Mujahid, a film director, has been arrested for allegedly killing his friend Faisal Nabi in an apartment in Defence on the night between June 19 & 20 while the suspect’s friend Anab Hameed and the deceased’s companion Masuma Zainab Abidi have been detained for allegedly abetting the crime.

On July 8, the court issued a show-cause notice to IO Mohammad Shan for his failure to submit the interim charge-sheet and non-production of witnesses despite submitting their names in the court for recording their statements under Section 164 (power to record statements and confessions) of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and asked the IO to submit reply and charge-sheet on Tuesday.

However, the IO through his reply informed the court that the investigation of the case had been transferred from him to Inspector Mohammad Mobin on the directive the police high-ups.

The newly-appointed IO asked the court to grant him sometime for submission of the charge-sheet as the investigation was assigned to him on Monday.

The magistrate granted him three days and asked the IO to submit the report under Section 173 of the CrPC on next hearing without fail.

Remanded in land scam

A judicial magistrate remanded on Tuesday a former provincial caretaker minister in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency in a land scam case.

Mohammad Iqbal Dawood Pakwala, a minister in the recent Sindh caretaker government, was arrested on Monday for his alleged involvement in the purchase of a four-acre disputed piece of land in 2011-12 near the airport on a hefty payment that caused huge financial losses to the national exchequer.

The FIA brought the suspect to city courts in an ambulance as he was said to be in poor health and produced him before the court of a judicial magistrate (east).

The investigating officer sought his custody till July 23 for interrogation, but the counsel for the suspect opposed it on health ground and contended that his client was ill and under treatment at a private hospital.

The magistrate Ghulam Murtaza handed the suspect over to the FIA on a two-day physical remand and directed the IO to provide him necessary treatment.

The then DG (investment) Employees Old Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) Wahid Khursheed Kunwar, retired colonel Ali Asad Mirza, his wife Nighat Mirza and daughter Maham Najeeb have already been booked in the case and all of them were in prison apart from Nighat, who was on interim pre-arrest bail.

According to the prosecution, Iqbal Dawood was the head of EOBI’s investment committee that approved the deal and the then EOBI chairman Zafar Iqbal Gondal, Wahid Khursheed and employees’ representatives of EOBI Malik Imtiaz Mehfooz were members of the committee.

A case was registered under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker merchant or agent), 419 (cheating by personation), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 109 (abetment) of the PPC read with Section 5 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act-II, 1947 at the FIA Commercial Bank Circle, Karachi.