LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday acquitted Mustafa Kanju, son of former state minister Siddique Kanju, and his four security guards of murder of Zain, an orphan young boy, for lack of evidence.

The suspects had filed an acquittal application under Section 265-K of CrPC after complainant of the case and all prosecution witnesses did not testify against them.

Counsel for Kanju and others argued before the court that the prosecution had failed to prove the involvement of his clients in the murder. He stated that there was no probability of the conviction of the suspects of any offence as all witnesses and the complainant failed to identify the suspects arrested by the police.

He asked the court to accept the acquittal application and release the suspects.

A deputy prosecutor opposed the application and said complainant Sohail Afzal had told the media time and again that Mustafa Kanju killed his nephew. However, he said, the complainant later retracted.

He pointed out that cases were registered against the complainant and witnesses on charges of taking gifts from the accused party under section 213 of PPC. The section carries charges of taking gift, etc. to screen an offender from punishment.

The prosecutor said the complainant and the witnesses were persuaded to retract their statements. He urged the court to dismiss the acquittal application of the suspects.

ATC-I Presiding Judge Muhammad Qasim, however, allowed the application and acquitted Mustafa Kanju and his guards Sadiq, Asif, Saif and Akram.

The trial court had indicted the suspects for killing 16-year-old Zain and injuring Husain, 18, in Cavalry Ground area in April this year.

As per the prosecution, Kanju was allegedly drunk when his luxury car hit another car driven by a woman, who was never identified by the investigators. It said Kanju got infuriated and opened fire at his opponent party. However, the woman had already driven away from the scene and Zain and Husain, the passers-by, were hit by the firing. Zain succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital. Kanju had escaped from the scene and later was arrested from Khushab.

Gulberg police had lodged FIR against Kanju and his guards under section 7-ATA and section 302 of PPC. In this case, the prosecution had also filed a petition before the Lahore High Court with a request to transfer the trial to some other judge expressing distrust of the incumbent.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2015

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