KARACHI: A judicial magistrate has sentenced 14 persons, including two women, to three years in prison each for their involvement in looting over Rs205 million from a cash delivery van of a security company on main I.I. Chundrigar Road in 2021.

Judicial Magistrate (South) Saeed Ahmed Otho found guilty the accused driver of the van, Hussain Shah, and his accomplices co-accused Naimatullah, Gul Hussain, Niaz Badshah, Ashique Hussain, Sheeraz Gul, Noorullah, Zulfiqar Ali, Salman Shah, Majeed Gul, Saifullah, Mudassir, and two women, Akbarun Nisa and Fazila.

The court also imposed fines on each convict; in case of default, they would serve additional imprisonment.

After pronouncing the verdict, the judge directed the police to take the 12 accused persons into custody as they had appeared on bail before the court.

According to state prosecutor Rasheeda Parveen, the complainant informed the police that the cash van was transporting over Rs205m from Tariq Road to a private bank located on I.I. Chundrigar Road.

Only Rs30.7m has been recovered from accused and Rs175m still not found, court told

A company’s guard, Mohammed Saleem, went inside the bank to take the receipt. When he returned, he saw that the cash van was no longer parked outside. He called the van driver, Husain Shah, who initially informed him that he would return within a short time, according to the contents of the FIR.

However, when the guard called again, the driver had switched off his cell phone. The van was traced through the company’s tracking system and found on Queen’s Road. During inspection, it was found that along with the cash, weapons, a camera and a DVR were also missing from the van.

According to prosecutor Rasheeda, the police had recovered over Rs30.7 million while the remaining amount still needs to be recovered.

During the trial, she argued that the material brought on record connected all the accused with the alleged offence and mere technicalities of law could not exonerate them.

On the other hand, defence counsel Mehnaz Jan Afridi argued that the alleged recovery had been foisted upon the accused by the police, adding that the recovery from the other accused was as per record made in one night from the jurisdiction of different police stations, but no entries of arrival and departure from such police stations, except for one, had been produced by the investigation officer.

The court observed that the presence of accused Hussain on the day of the incident and taking away the cash van by him was established. The allegation regarding the amount was also supported by his confession, which was on record, and no denial was made by the defence counsel. “Surprisingly, during such a long trial, he (Hussain) never ever moved any application that he has discarded the confessional statement,” the court noted.

Published in Dawn, July 30th, 2024