KARACHI, Feb 29: A man supposedly charged in a murder case in 1997 has spent the past seven years behind bars but has so far not been produced before the court by the authorities concerned, and when the relevant police station’s records were produced in court, the case in which he was supposedly nominated was found to be registered against someone else.

Despite having got bail in four other cases registered against him in different police stations and having paid the surety bonds, Mehmood Babar has not been released by the Central Jail authorities, who claimed that another case (FIR No 67/1997) was registered against him under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Orangi Town police station. However, he was never produced in court in this regard and the Orangi Town police station stated that it had no record of the case.

Chairman Maqbool-ur-Rahman of the World Reform Commission, which provides free legal aid to prisoners, told Dawn that that the prisoner Babar was charged in a murder case which jail authorities claimed was registered against him in 1997.

However, they did not produce the accused in court or even disclose his alleged involvement in the case until Babar asked to be released on the grounds that courts had granted him bail in all the cases registered against him.

According to Rahman, officials of the Orangi Town police station said that they had no record of the case Babar is alleged to be involved in. The jail authorities, however, claimed that they had received a daily entry-book from the police station in which a case was registered against Babar, who could therefore not be released until he was either acquitted or got bail in the case.

The World Reform Commission moved an application in the court of district and sessions judge West, Syed Zakir Hussain, requesting the court to call for the record of the case from the Central Jail and the Orangi Town police station. When the police station officials produced the records, it was found that the case (FIR 67/97) was indeed registered under Section 13-E of the Arms Ordinance but against some one else — Mehmood Babar was not nominated in the FIR.

On Friday, the court directed the Central Jail authorities to produce the case record so that the matter could be settled.