KARACHI: Police have submitted before a court that a fire that broke out in the judicial Malkhana (storehouse of case property) of City Courts in April that destroyed important evidence in thousands of criminal trials and case properties was accidental and held three officials of the storage facility responsible for their alleged negligence.

The investigating officer stated in the investigation report filed before the administrative judge of antiterrorism courts, Karachi, that two judicial officers conducted the inquiry of the incident and a joint investigation team (JIT) headed by the DIG (South) also probed the matter while the Pakistan Rangers and the intelligence agencies also investigated it, but no evidence was found to establish that it was an act of arson.

The report further said that as per judicial inquiry report, a case property containing explosives and rocket launchers was brought back in the Malkhana after its production before an ATC on the day of the incident, adding that the box of the case property was opened and de-sealed and the Malkhana officials put it back in the warehouse without examining it and closed the storage facility. The incident occurred due to this negligence on the part of officials.

The case property in question belonged to an FIR (291/14) lodged at the Kalakot police station under Section 4/5 of the Explosive Substances Act read with Section 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, it added.

Important evidence in thousands of criminal trials and case properties was destroyed

The IO, DSP Javed Akhtar Malik, further said in the charge sheet that he recorded the statement of ASI Mohammad Younis of the Kalakot police station as he took the case property to an ATC and then brought it back to the Malkhana.

The Malkhana officials did not ask about the prosecution letter regarding the de-sealed box of the case property and on the day of the incident the officials had closed the Malkhana at 3.30pm and also switched off the electricity button while the fire broke out at around 11pm on April 11, it added.

The investigation report further said that the case property and record of districts South and West were completely destroyed in the fire, old record of the central record office was also burnt while the case property of three police stations of district Central was also destroyed and explosives and ammunitions, kept in the Malkhana, also exploded in the fire. However, the case property of district East, kept in the same facility, remained safe.

The IO said that he recorded statements of around two dozen prosecution witnesses, including fire officer, watchmen and bomb disposal squad (BDS) and also collected reports from K-Electric and the BDS.

He charge-sheeted the in-charge of district West section of the Malkhana Sub-Inspector Abdul Sattar Gopang, in-charge of district Central SI Turab Ali and in-charge of district South ASI Shakeel Mirza under relevant sections of the law.

The FIR was registered at the City Courts police station and all the suspects are out on bail.

Initially, the IO had filed the charge sheet against three officials of Malkhana before a judicial magistrate (South). However, the magistrate observed that the explosives had blown up during the fire which created terror and insecurity among the people living in the surroundings areas and directed the IO to incorporate Section 6/7 of the ATA in the case and file the charge sheet before the administrative judge of ATCs.

Therefore, the IO invoked the relevant sections of ATA in the charge sheet and submitted it before the administrative court of ATCs Karachi. After admitting the charge sheet, the administrative judge sent the case to ATC-20 for trial.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2018