KARACHI, July 23: An anti-terrorism court on Monday acquitted two accused and issued a show-cause notice to the investigating officer for deliberately framing the two persons in a case of kidnapping for ransom registered 14 years ago.

Asim Aziz and Nasreen along with Aziz-ul-Hasan (deceased) and Meraj, an absconder, were charged with abducting an eight-year-old girl for ransom after committing a robbery in a house within the remit of the Sharifabad police station in August 1998.

The judge, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, of the ATC-III, who conducted the trial, exonerated the accused and observed that none of the prosecution witnesses had uttered a single word against the accused, nor did they identify them before the trial court.

The court ruled that IO Zafar Iqbal had framed innocent people in the case by conducting a defective investigation.

The court further stated that the accused were shown arrested in this crime on Aug 8, 1998, whereas, a first charge-sheet alleged to be misplaced from the court was submitted after a delay of about 16 months.

However, no explanation in this regard had been given on the record by the IO, except that the complainant was not in contact with him, while the IO also failed to produce any notice addressed to the complainant for not cooperating in the investigation.

The IO entangled the accused on the basis of their so-called admission before the police, but he did not realise that the subject admission had no legal sanctity and framed them without any sound material just to show his performance, it added.

“Indeed this is case of no evidence and IO Zafar Iqbal deliberately roped innocent persons in the subject crime due to their involvement in another case of similar nature,” the court ruled.

It further observed that these all facts expressed mala fide intention and recklessness on the part of IO, who instead of conducting an impartial investigation, showed his performance and discharged burden of investigation from his shoulders by arraigning innocent persons.

The court stated that this act of IO Zafar Iqbal was a grim example of victimisation of innocent persons under the so-called best performance of the IO and also stigmatised the performance of police more particularly in the field of investigation and also shake the public confidence in the police system.

Therefore, the IO entailed penal action against him, the court ruled and issued a show-cause notice under Section 27 (punishment for defective investigation) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997, with direction to furnish the explanation, as to why the proceedings should not be initiated against him according to law.

According to section 27of the ATA, if the court comes to the conclusion during the course of or at the conclusion of trial that the IO or other officers concerned have failed to carry out investigation properly and diligently or have failed to pursue the case properly and in breach of their duties, it shall be lawful for such court, or as the case may be, to punish the delinquent officer with imprisonment which may extend to two years or with fine or with both by resort to summary proceedings.

The prosecution examined six witnesses in the case, including two key witnesses, the victim and her mother Farzana Saif.

A magistrate had conducted the identification parade of all three detained accused in December 1999 in which Farzana had only picked out Nasreen and assigned her role in the commissioning of offence.

However, both the eyewitnesses neither testified against any of the four accused, nor identified them before the trial court.

According to the prosecution, on Aug 10, 1998 the suspects broke into the house of complainant Saif-ur-Rehman in Sharifabad and allegedly deprived his family of cash and other valuables and also took his eight-year-old daughter Sana away for the purpose of ransom.

However, the victim was found in the Liquate National Hospital on the following day while the police arrested three suspects on Aug 18, 1998, it added.

It’s key to mention here that the investigating officer had moved an application before a magistrate for identification parade around 18 months after the arrest of the suspects and submitted a charge-sheet against them in December 1999.

However, it had reportedly gone missing from an anti-terrorism court.

Later, the accused party moved the Sindh High Court in this regard.

The judge in his comments dated April 7, 2010, explicitly stated that the charge-sheet of the instant crime was neither submitted nor R& P was available in the office record of the court.

An inquiry on the subject issue was ordered by administrative judge of the ATC courts and conducted by a superintendent of police, who opined lack of sense of responsibility on the part of IO as he did not obtain any receipt of submission of the charge-sheet and have no proof in this regard.

Subsequently, the IO had filed a duplicate charge-sheet in the court in May 2010. Aziz-ul-Hasan died during the trial while Meraj remained at large. The court also acquitted the absconder.A case (FIR No.172/1998) was registered under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 392 (punishment for robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of ATA.