KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced three street criminals to seven years’ imprisonment in a case pertaining to the looting of a medical store at gunpoint in the Gulshan-i-Iqbal area.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (East) Shahid Ali Memon found the three street criminals — Muhammad Ajmal, Muhammad Javed and Muhammad Shamshad — guilty of committing an offence under Section 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and sentenced them to seven years in prison.

However, the court acquitted another accused, Hafeez Khan, for want of evidence against him.

“The prosecution had brought on record, more much direct, sound, cogent, coherence and confidence inspiring evidence against all the accused persons except accused Hafeez beyond any shadow of doubt,” the judge observed.

According to the prosecution, on Sept 18, 2022, the owner of a medical store and his staff were allegedly robbed at gunpoint by four men, who made off with at least Rs70,000 in cash along with mobile phones and other valuables before fleeing the shop.

Court acquits fourth accused due to lack of evidence

Subsequently, police managed to arrest two suspects — Ajmal and Javed — who allegedly disclosed the names of their accomplices during initial interrogation. Acting on the information provided, police later apprehended the remaining absconding accused.

The prosecution also claimed that one of the eyewitnesses had identified the accused at the police station and assigned their roles in the commissioning of the offence. The prosecution further claimed that the accused had also allegedly confessed to their involvement in the robbery to police.

During the trial, the defence denied the allegations, stating that the accused had been falsely implicated after refusing to pay bribes to the police.

However, the judge rejected the defence contentions and noted: “I have found it to be much more strong, coherence and confidence inspiring evidence. I have also found that this witness being important, staff prosecution witness rather eyewitness and victim had fully corroborated the instances/version so stated in FIR. He also verified the contents of FIR and other documents and so also owned their signatures thereon. I have also noted that this witness had no little bit malafide or even ill will or biasness against accused persons.”

A case was registered at Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station under Sections 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC.

Published in Dawn, July 4th, 2025