KARACHI, April 25: An anti-terrorism court had to put off the hearing of the Wali Khan Babar murder case on Wednesday when one of the defendants fainted minutes before the hearing.

Judge Ghulam Mustafa Memon of the ATC-III also directed the jail authorities for a medical examination and treatment to Shahrukh alias Mani and adjourned the hearing to May 4.Faisal Mahmood alias Nafsiati, Syed Mohammad Ali Rizvi, Shahrukh alias Mani, Naveed alias Polka and Shakil alias Malik along with their absconding accomplices have been charged with killing Mr Babar, a private TV channel reporter, on Jan 13, 2011 within the remit of the Super Market police station.

A case (FIR No 8/2011) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Later, Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act was also incorporated in the FIR on the applications of the public prosecutor and the complainant.

The suspects were arrested during a random check on vehicles in Gulshan-i-Iqbal on April 7, 2011.

Meanwhile, Advocate Salman Mujahid submitted his power to defend the accused in the court.

Women’s murder suspect remanded The rickshaw driver arrested on Tuesday for killing at least two women and dumping their chopped body parts was remanded to the police for interrogation and investigation for five days.

The Soldier police produced the suspect, Mohammad Rafiq Soomro, in the court of judicial magistrate, east, Javed Iqbal Malik, who gave him in the police custody till April 30 for interrogation in the murder case of Nasreen.

The investigation officer submitted in the court that the suspect, who originally hailed from Sukkur, and his absconding friend, Iqbal, were involved in chopping off the body of Nasreen and other women over the past two months.

He said that the body parts of Nasreen were found at different places within the remit of the Soldier Bazaar police on April 9 and 10.

The police said the suspect, father of two, was tracked down after he used the cellphone of his victim.

Gwadar DC murder case The judicial magistrate, south, Hatim Aziz Solangi, issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of three absconding accused in the murder case of deputy commissioner of Gwadar, Abdur Rahman Dashti.

The Clifton police submitted the final charge-sheet against Imam Bux Bazenjo, Rahim Bux and Aman stating that the three accused could not be tracked down as they were believed to have fled the city.

According to the charge-sheet, the victim had gone to the house of Imam Bux Bazenjo and he was killed by the accused following an altercation.

The court ordered the investigation officer to arrest the accused and produced them in court on the next date of hearing, i.e. May 9.

Robber convicted The additional district and sessions judge, east, Chaudhry Wasim Iqbal, sentenced a man to suffer rigorous imprisonment for five years for robbery and attempt to murder.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on Qadir Baloch, who was arrested in a shoot-out with police before he could run away after depriving a passer-by of his cellular phone in 2008 within the remit of the Aziz Bhatti police station.

The convict will have to undergo an additional one-month term in case he defaulted on the payment of fine, the court ordered.