KARACHI, Sept 2: The fate of two juvenile under-trial prisoners, charged with possessing hashish, hangs in the balance as the investigation officer has not yet submitted final charge-sheet in the court even after over a year of their arrest.
Jamal son of Dulal and Bilal son of Mannan, both in their mid-teens, were arrested with three others on July 5, 2004, in Gulshan-i-Iqbal by then SHO Inspector Irfan Zaman, who claimed to have seized 90 grams and 150 grams of hashish from them, respectively. The two accused have never been produced in the court since their arrest.
The juvenile accused were booked in the FIR No. 275/2004 under Section 6/9 (b) of the CNS Act, 1979. The investigation of the case was assigned to sub-inspector Manthar Ali of the investigation squad.
As per mandatory provision of law, the investigation officer was bound to submit the charge-sheet in the court within 15 days so that the trial of the accused would have commenced.
However, the investigation officer did not submit the challan despite half of the dozen notices from the Special Court-II (CNS), Karachi, which tries the cases of narcotics substances.
Besides, the authorities at the juvenile prison also sent over two dozen reminders to the investigation officer asking him to submit the charge-sheet, but to no avail.
The matter was taken up by an NGO working for the prisoners, on the request of the juvenile prison authorities as the two UTPs had never been produced before the trial court since their arrest.
Arif Dawood of the DK Foundation filed an acquittal application for the two juvenile UTPs under Section 173 (1) of the CrPC on May 10 before the Special Court-II (CNS).
The judge fixed May 19 for pronouncement of his order on the acquittal application after hearing arguments from the defence and prosecution attorney on May 17.
Later the court deferred the order till June 8. However, the order was not pronounced and it was further put off till June 21, and then till June 28.
The judge did not pronounce the order on June 28 and he further deferred it till Aug 11. The pronouncement of order was further deferred till Aug 18.
On Aug 18, the court fixed Sept 22 for the pronouncement of order.
