Plea for acquittal of accused in DHA cop’s murder case dismissed

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) has dismissed an application of an accused seeking acquittal in a case pertaining to the murder of a policeman in the Defence area in November last year.

Khurram Nisar had allegedly shot and killed police constable Abdul Rehman when the latter tried to stop his car on suspicion that he had abducted a girl on the night of November 21, 2022. The suspect, being a dual national, fled to Sweden hours after the incident.

His brother-in-law Amir Qadeer and driver Aurangzeb were booked on charges of hiding evidence and facilitating the murder suspect to flee abroad. They are currently out on bail. Amir moved an application seeking his acquittal under Section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). The ATC-VII judge pronounced his order after hearing arguments from defence and prosecution sides.

He noted that it would be premature to draw any conclusion at this initial stage of the case pertaining to merits and demerits of the application because so far neither charges had been framed nor an opportunity provided to the prosecution to produce evidence against the accused/the applicant. Therefore, he ruled that the instant application at this initial stage merited no consideration, and rejected the same.

The judge also dismissed another application filed by the counsel for the legal heirs of deceased, requesting the court to put on hold the indictment of the accused. He said the case would proceed in accordance with the law.

The court set November 13 for the indictment of the accused with a direction to Aamir Qadeer and Aurangzeb, who are out on bail, to ensure their appearance on the next date. According to the prosecution, the victim, along with another cop, was on patrol on a motorcycle when they heard screams of a woman from a car that zoomed past on Khayaban-e-Shamsheer near a 26th Street traffic signal at around 11:30pm.

Constable Rehman chased the car and got it stopped near Abdullah Shah Ghazi’s shrine and sat on the front seat of the car. In the meantime, the woman got off the vehicle and disappeared. The driver drove to Phase V Extension where he pulled over and the two exchanged hot words. The suspect then opened fire on the cop who also returned fire, but he suffered a fatal bullet injury and fell down on the road.

Initially, an FIR was lodged under sections 302 (murder) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

However, later sections 109 (punishment for abetment), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform) of the PPC were invoked in a charge-sheet filed against Aamir Qadir and Aurangzeb.