Three acquitted in kidnapping for ransom case for lack of evidence

An anti-terrorism court has acquitted three men over lack of evidence in a case pertaining to the kidnapping of a minor boy for ransom.

Zohaib Ali, Muhammad Ammar and Aziz-ur-Rehman were charged with kidnapping Abdullah in Surjani Town and demanding ransom for his release in September last year. The ATC-XVI judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the Central Jail, announced his verdict after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case against the accused and therefore exonerated them from the charge. He ordered the jail authorities to release them forthwith if their custody was not required in any other case.

According to the prosecution, the boy was kidnapped in Surjani Town on September 13, 2022. His father later received a call from an unknown suspect, who demanded ransom for the release of his son.

The state prosecutor said the police initially arrested the suspect who came to receive the ransom amount from the father of the abductee and later, on his pointation, they safely recovered the child from a flat in Pehlwan Goth in Gulistan-e-Jauhar and arrested the held suspect’s two accomplices.

During the trial, two key witnesses – the minor boy’s father and his friend – who accompanied the police during a raid that led to the arrest of the suspects and recovery of the child – were declared hostile after they deviated from their previous statements recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The defence lawyers contended that their clients were innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. They requested the court to acquit the accused due to lack of evidence. An FIR was lodged at the Surjani Town police station under sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of [fourteen]), 365-A (Kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc.) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Acts, 1997 on the complaint of the child’s father.