KARACHI, Nov 29: Prosecution in a kidnapping for ransom case concluded evidence on Wednesday in an anti-terrorism court. Judge Ghulam Ali A. Samtio fixed December 6 for the next hearing after special public prosecutor examined the investigation officer as the last prosecution witness.

The case pertained to the kidnapping of a senior bureaucrat’s son, who was kidnapped in Karachi on September 19, 2005 and later recovered from Peshawar.Hanif Ullah, his son Farhan Ullah, Sikander Shah and Azizur Rehman are being tried for the kidnapping of Hamid Umer Sameen, a young banker and son of Abdul Ghani Sameen.

According to the prosecution, the victim was on his way in Clifton when occupants of a car, bearing fake registration number of Sindh government, intercepted his car. Accused Hanif Ullah was clad in the uniform of an army major and accused Aziz was in the uniform of a private security guard. They kidnapped Hamid on the pretext of interrogation. They replaced the fake number plate of their car with that of the victim’s car and left Karachi by road.

On their way the accused met an accident near Dera Ghazi Khan in which the Hamid and Hanif both got their left arm broken. Later, the accused took the victim to Peshawar and kept him with their accomplices.

On Sept 21, accused Farhan Ullah went to an ATM machine in Mardan and withdrew Rs20,500 from there by using the victim’s card. As the victim was an employee of the United Bank and was missing, the transaction alerted the bank.

The bank put the ATM under observation. The police retrieved the digital photographs of those who had visited the ATM facility and tracked down Shabbir Hasan Raza, who was running an optical shop near the bank.