HYDERABAD, June 18: The prosecution witness, Hameedullah Memon, an investigation officer (IO) in the Daniel Pearl murder case, during his cross-examination by the defence lawyers here on Tuesday, accused Erum Jehangir, the Judicial Magistrate (Karachi South), of having lied before the court about some confessional statements.

During her cross-examination on May 13, the magistrate had deposed before the court: “...from the confessional statement of the accused, I am of the conclusion that confession was not voluntary because it was according to the circumstances of the case.” The statements referred to were recorded by the magistrate and attributed to two accused persons namely Fahad Naseem and Salman Saqib.

According to the defence counsel, Rai Basheer, when the statement of the judicial magistrate was referred to him, the IO replied that ‘she was telling lie’.

Rai Basheer, recorded his objection saying that the IO’s charge was a grave contempt of court on the face of it and that he would file a contempt plea against the IO after seeking a certified copy of his cross-examination.

The chief prosecutor, Raja Qureshi, who is also the Advocate-General, Sindh, told Dawn that the Anti-terrorism Court judge observed: “A witness can not give his opinion against the other witness because it is the function of court to form opinion.”

Rai Basheer also filed a plea seeking production of station diaries (Roznamchas) of CIA and CID centres and the Artillery Maidan police station, Karachi, as well as register No. 19, which contained the record of case property.

Raja Qureshi undertook before the ATC that he would produce the same after examining them and seeking instructions from the government.

The court issued notice to the AG on another defence application seeking return of three new cell phones of accused Salman Saqib and Fahad Naseem. The telephone sets were taken away by an investigating team during a raid.

The hearing, which ended at 4pm, was adjourned till Thursday.

The senior defence counsel, Abdul Waheed Katpar, completed his cross-examination on Tuesday while Rai Basheer is continuing with his extensive cross-examination.

Giving details of the cross-examination, Rai Basheer told newsmen that he concentrated on the conversations of different people, including the kidnappers of Daniel Pearl and one Miss Asra Nomani, who allegedly stayed with Daniel Pearl and accompanied him at places.

The counsel said that the IO had himself admitted that Ms Nomani remained in touch with Mr Pearl but he failed to justify her exclusion from the investigation.

The IO, he added, did not trace out the callers who contacted the lady using Mr Pearl’s cell phone after having kidnapped him.

He said that many calls were made to/from the telephone, including phone Nos 0300-9594475, 0300-8241180, 0300-8226531 and 021-5661676. Daniel Pearl, he added, used phone No. 0300-9594475 issued in the name of one, Shafi Mohammad, while Ms Nomani was using phone No. 0300-8241180.

There was no contact even for once between any of the above mentioned phone numbers and those of the accused, the counsel pointed out.

He said that the IO also failed to find out people who were using PTCL number and cell phone during the course of Mr Pearl’s kidnapping.

Rai Basheer said that he told the IO that the senders of the three e-mails were foreign nationals whereas recipient was Asra Nomani.