KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Thursday upheld the life imprisonment handed down to four men by the trial court in a kidnapping for ransom case.

The two-judge bench comprising by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio observed that although a proper investigation of the case was not conducted, the material surfaced on the record found sufficient and would not be bearing any adverse outcome in the case.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Ali Akbar, Naeem, Mukhtiar Ahmed and Roohullah to life in prison in January 2020 for abducting Raheel Alam in Gulistan-i-Jauhar in Feb 6, 2018 and setting him free on May 31, 2018 against the payment of Rs10.15 million.

The convicts through their counsel challenged the trial court order before the SHC and after hearing both the sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the bench dismissed the appeals and maintained the order of trial court.

The bench in its judgement said that after a careful consideration, the evidence of captive and other material witnesses was found trustworthy while the call data record (CDR) and SIM card recovered from appellants Roohullah and Mukhtiar at the time of their arrest had shown them being in contact with each other and the brother of captive, who was negotiating the ransom amount.

The counsel for appellants had rightly pointed out some discrepancies in the investigation but at this juncture it would not be advantageous to the defence, it said.

According to the prosecution, the car of captive was intercepted by another vehicle when he was returning home from work and three men forced the victim into their car and drove away.

Later, Nabeel Alam, a brother of captive had received several phone calls from Afghanistan for payment of ransom and Rs10.15m was agreed upon and the kidnappers asked him to deliver the money in Afghanistan. Upon his refusal, they further asked him to hand over the same to Roohullah in Quetta.

The prosecution further said that he again refused and then Roohullah provided him phone number of Mukhtiar and ransom was paid to the latter at Akbar Market.

The appellants were arrested in September 2018, it added.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2022