KARACHI: An antiterrorism court has directed the Karachi police chief to take stern action against a serving sub-inspector and an assistant sub-inspector for faulty investigation and spoiling evidence in an explosives and illicit arms case.

The ATC-XII judge also told the Additional IG Karachi Range to submit a compliance report within two months.

The court also acquitted a suspect Asif Jameel, alias Pappu, of the charges of possessing explosives and illicit weapon. Jameel was arrested and booked in separate cases registered against him under Sections 4 and 5 of the Explosive Substance Act read with the Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 and Section 23(I)-A of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013 at the Alfalah police station.

The prosecution alleged that a patrolling party of the Alfalah police station arrested Jameel along the railway line Puliya Bagh in Malir on June 8, 2017 and allegedly recovered a hand grenade and an unlicensed pistol of 30-bore from his possession.

The case against him was registered by sub-inspector Imran Ali Jaffery on behalf of the state. During the trial, he produced material evidence, including a memo of arrest of the suspect, recovery of the explosive and illicit arm from his custody, and a clearance certificate in respect of the hand grenade issued by the bomb disposal squad. He also produced two FIRs lodged against him on his complaint.

During his cross-examination, the prosecution witness contradicted his earlier statement and said he received a call from the DIG Office on wireless instead of telephone. He also produced a clearance certificate, which did not bear signature of any authority and also admitted that without a launcher the grenade was not harmful. The court declared his testimony as doubtful.

Defence counsel Mohammad Arshad Khan denied the alleged recoveries of the explosives and weapon, as claimed by the prosecution. He alleged that the same were being managed by the policemen to frame his client as nothing was recovered from his possession.

The suspect alleged that the police demanded Rs50,000 bribe from him and upon failure to pay the money, implicated him in the explosives and illicit arms case.

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2018