KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has exonerated a man from all charges of possessing drugs, explosives and an unlicensed weapon and directed the Karachi police chief to initiate departmental proceedings against five police officials for framing him in the case.

The ATC-XII judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, also sought a compliance report from the additional inspector general, Karachi within one month.

The judge found “gross illegality” by the police team which foisted the alleged recovery of hashish, a grenade and a pistol on Hameedullah.

The judge observed that “such type of police officials may not be posted at police stations to save the public from their illegalities”.

The judge has observed that public must be saved from ‘illegalities’ of such police officials

The police arrested suspect Hameedullah in Azam Basti and allegedly recovered an “Awan bomb”, 5.2kg charas and an unlicensed .30-bore pistol from him.

Two separate cases were registered against him under Sections 4/5 of the Explosive Substances Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act and Section 23(I)-A of the Sindh Arms Act.

During his trial, the suspect denied the recoveries and testified that the hashish, grenade and pistol were being managed by the police officials as nothing was recovered from his possession at the time of arrest.

He deposed that the police had picked him up from a marriage hall on Korangi Road between 11pm and 11.30pm on Jan 4. His father had moved an application to the police high-ups and the people present there also filed their affidavits in his favour.

The suspect produced the applications with courier receipts and affidavits in court and claimed he was innocent and pleaded for justice.

The prosecution examined five prosecution witnesses — Assistant Sub-Inspector Mohammad Ashraf Ghuman, Head Constable Mohammad Iqbal, Inspector (now retired) Mohammad Azeem, all posted at the Mehmoodabad police station and Inspector Mohammad Saleem, then SHO of the Special Investigation Unit and SI Jan Mohammad, posted at the Bomb Disposal Squad at East Zone — but the judge ruled that their testimonies were doubtful.

The court observed that their testimonies could not be relied upon as there were clear contradictions about the place of the arrest; mandatory entries in the official record were found missing, etc.

The court noted that Inspector Azeem, the first investigating officer, got the investigation of the case and produced the suspect before a judicial magistrate concerned for his remand in the drugs case; then before the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts for his physical remand in the explosives and illicit arms cases.

During cross-examination, the prosecution witness disclosed that he did not find any link of the accused with any proscribed organisation.

The judge noted that the IO produced the detained accused for remand after 24 hours of his arrest due to which the custody of the accused became illegal, as he acted against the provision of Section 61 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

Another prosecution witness, Inspector Saleem, conceded that during re-investigation of the case he did not bring new evidence against the accused.

The court ruled that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Therefore, it acquitted the held accused under Section 265-H(I) (acquittal of conviction) of the CrPC.

Bail pleas dismissed

Another ATC on Saturday dismissed the bail applications of two accused in a case pertaining to the murder of a deputy superintendent of police.

Ishtiaq alias Policewala, Syed Abu Irfan alias Urfee, Syed Zakir Hussain, Obaid alias K2, Shafiq-ur-Rehman, Syed Shakir Shah and Khawaja Faisal, said to be political activists, have been charged with allegedly killing DSP Nawaz Ranjha and his driver on M.A. Jinnah Road near the Radio Pakistan building when the police officer was returning from his duty in August 2010.

Shakir Shah and Shafiq-ur-Rehman, through their counsel, moved their bail applications.

After hearing arguments from both sides, an ATC judge, who was conducting the trial at the judicial complex inside the central prison, dismissed the applications and adjourned the hearing till Oct 16 for evidence of witnesses.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 at the Preedy police station.

Earlier, the court had dismissed their bail pleas on Oct 4, 2017.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2018