KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside the life imprisonment awarded to a man by the trial court in kidnapping for ransom and attempted murder cases.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Sarfaraz, alias Bhoora, said to be associated with the banned Peoples’ Amn Committee of Lyari, to life in prison on two counts in April 2015 for abducting Ayaz and Sultan for ransom in Dalmia in October 2011 and attacking policemen with attempt to kill them when they conducted a raid to recover the captives.

The convict had challenged the conviction order before the SHC and after hearing arguments from both sides and examining record and proceedings of the case, a two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha allowed the appeal and set aside the verdict of the trial court.

The bench observed that the captives were key prosecution witnesses of the case, but none of them deposed against the appellant as Sultan did not turn up to record evidence while Ayaz was declared hostile by the prosecutor since he had not identified the appellant as accused before the trial court.

It further said that the complainant, an uncle of the captives, was also declared a hostile witness by the prosecution, adding that no ransom was paid and the mobile number used to make the ransom call had no link with the appellant.

Although the encounter did take place at the time when the captives were rescued by the police, there was no evidence that the appellant was involved in the shoot-out, it concluded.

The prosecution said that the captives were recovered after a shoot-out with kidnappers on the same day, but the culprits managed to escape. The accused was arrested around a month after the incident in some other cases and disclosed his involvement in these cases.

Meanwhile, the bench also overturned the life imprisonment of the same accused in other cases, including explosive substances, and awarded him seven years for the offence of attempted murder.

The ATC had also sentenced Sarfaraz to life in prison and other multiple sentences in April 2015 for carrying explosives and illicit weapons and making attempt on the life of members of a police party to avoid his arrest in the jurisdiction of the Aziz Bhatti police station in November 2011.

The bench set aside the life term and ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that the appellant was carrying explosive material at the time of his arrest.

However, it added that the charges of attempted murder, carrying illicit weapons and deterring public servants had been established against the appellant and awarded him seven years each for attempt to commit murder and keeping unlicensed weapons and two years jail for deterring policemen from discharging their duty. However, all the sentences will run concurrently.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2020