KARACHI, Aug 23: While the government has listed the offence of extortion in the anti-terror law in a move to curb the crime in the city, poor protection of witnesses along with flawed investigation due to little understanding of the law or false implication on the part of investigating agencies often leads to acquittals in extortion cases, it emerged on Thursday.

Sources in courts said that dozens of extortion cases were pending before the three anti-terrorism courts set up in Karachi, and statistics of the past six months showed that accused persons in most cases were acquitted just because of faulty investigation, false implication and deviation of witnesses from previous testimony.

The sources said that the performance of the investigating agencies could be assessed from the fact that officials many times produced suspected extortionists before magistrates though the offence was listed in the Anti-Terrorism Act.

In a similar incident on March 19, the sources said, the police had produced two suspected extortionists before the court of a judicial magistrate and got their remand regardless of the fact that only anti-terrorism courts were competent to give remand and hold trial in cases related to demand or collection of protection money under the ATA.

Zulfiqar Ali and Qudrat Ali had been arrested within the remit of the Mochko police station for demanding protection money from the owner of a medical store.

The sources said that an anti-terrorism court on March 29 had acquitted four men in an extortion case because the complainant deposed that he was forced to sign the FIR and the investigating officer admitted that he charge-sheeted them on a directive of his superiors despite the absence of solid evidence against them.

Sajid Abbas, Junaid, Rajesh and Abdullah were booked for demanding protection money from an oil tanker driver within the remit of the Jackson police station in December last year.

The complainant testified that the accused persons never demanded protection money from him and he was kept at the police station for a couple of days and forced to sign the FIR.

The investigation officer, Inspector Syed Asghar Masood, admitted in court that he came to know during the investigation that the accused were watchmen and they used to collect money from oil tanker drivers to guard their vehicles. However, the IO claimed that he submitted the charge-sheet against the accused on the directive of the SP-Baldia.

In another case, the sources said, an investigating officer informed an anti-terrorism court last month that he set two policemen facing extortion charges free because he did not find ample evidence to connect them with the crime.

Assistant sub-inspector Javed Iqbal and constable Muzaffar Khan along with their absconding accomplice constable Waseem Zaidi were booked for demanding protection money from a shopkeeper in Jama Cloth Market on June 29.

While the ATC had directed the investigating officer, Israr Changezi, to file a final report under Section 173 of the criminal procedure code, he had yet to do so, the court sources said.

Only this month, they said, an ATC acquitted two suspects of extortion charges because of faulty investigation.

Abul alias Bengali and his accomplice Asif were booked for intercepting a motorcyclist, Mohammad Yaqoob, and allegedly demanding protection money from him within the remit of Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station.

While exonerating both from the charges, the court observed that investigating officers did not mention the registration number of the motorcycle the complainant was riding when he was allegedly intercepted. They also did not record the statement of motorcycle owner Aqeel, the court said.

The judge noted that the complainant had testified that the accused persons while handing over a demand slip for Rs1,000 to him had said that they belonged to Ahl-i-Sunnat Khidmat Committee. But, the judge said, the investigators did not verify the affiliation of the accused with the organisation.

A receipt book said to be seized from the accused person contained 14 slips inscribed with names of different persons who paid Rs500 each, but the investigators did not contact those persons to verify if they had paid the amount as a donation or extortion, the court observed.

Legal experts believed that such lacunas almost always benefited criminals.