PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday acquitted six people by setting aside their conviction by an anti-terrorism court in a case of kidnapping for ransom.

A bench consisting of Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justice Mussarat Hillai allowed criminal appeals filed by the six convicts and declared that there were lacunas in the prosecution’s case.

The appellants were Gul Mohammad, Zakir, Liaquat, Yasir, Hazrat Hussain and Shafiullah.

Advocate Sahibzada Asadullah appeared for the appellants and said the anti- terrorism court had convicted the appellants and sentenced them to life imprisonment along with confiscation of their properties.

He said according to prosecution they had kidnapped a person named Asif Khan in the jurisdiction of Badbher Police Station on June 24, 2013.

Asadullah pointed out that there were several flaws in the prosecution case which were overlooked by the trial court.

He said the prosecution had claimed that the appellants had also looted Rs2.7 million from the kidnapped person and it was a case of kidnapping for ransom, but during cross-examination, the complainant/kidnapped person conceded that they had not demanded any ransom from him.

He argued that when ransom was not demanded then Section 365-A of Pakistan Penal Code, dealing with kidnapping for ransom, was not attracted and thus it was not a case to be tried by an ATC.

He further argued that while the trial court observed that the appellants had made confession, in fact the said confessions became doubtful as proper procedure was not followed in that case. He added that under the law, once a suspect was brought for recording confessional statement, he had to be sent on judicial remand but in present case, the appellants remained in the custody of the police even after they made a confessional statement.

REMAND GRANTED: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday remanded an Afghan prayer leader to the custody of counter-terrorism department for three days in a case of misuse of loudspeaker and inciting general public to sectarianism.

The suspect, Fakhrul Islam, a resident of Afghan refugees camp in Badbher, was arrested a day earlier on charges of delivering hate speeches through loudspeaker of his mosque and instigating people against a particular sect.

An FIR was registered against him at the counter-terrorism police station under Section 9 of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

An official of the CTD requested the court that as investigation had been in progress against the suspect and therefore, his physical custody was required for interrogation.

He requested the court to grant his physical custody to the CTD for interrogation.

Published in Dawn, December 2nd, 2015