Society in panic owing to alarming level of street crime, observes judge

Noting an ‘appalling surge’ in robberies across the city, a sessions court has denied post-arrest bail to an alleged street criminal accused of robbing bank customers.

Ghulamullah and his accomplices were booked for snatching over Rs1.4 million cash from a citizen and one rifle from his guard during a traffic jam on the Native Jetty flyover in November last year.

Additional Sessions Judge (West) Sohail Ahmed Mashori dimissed an application of the accused seeking post-arrest bail in the case, observing that as per record, he was involved in a number of similar cases.

As was their modus operandi, he said, the accused and his accomplices robbed people who withdrew cash from banks. "Reasonable ground exits to believe that accused is connected with the alleged offence; therefore, he does not deserve the concession of bail at this stage," the judge ruled.

He remarked that there has been an appalling surge in robberies across the city. "Such gloomy situation of street crime in shape of robberies on force of weapons has put life, liberty and safety of man in the street at great risk," he added.

The judge said society was in panic owing to alarming level of street crime, leading to a crisis-like situation in the cosmopolitan city.

State Prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Qaiser contended that the accused along with his accomplices robbed the complainant, Muhammad Sohail, after he withdrew Rs1,450,000 cash from a private bank on II Chundrigar Road. The accused also deprived his guard of his rifle in a traffic jam on the Native Jetty flyover before managing to escape, he added.

The prosecutor said some of the stolen cash was recovered from co-accused Badshah Hussain, and as per record, the present accused was also involved in a number of criminal cases of similar nature.

On the other hand, the defence counsel argued that the name of his client did not figure in the FIR nor was he arrested from the crime scene. He said that the accused was falsely implicated in this case and there was no cogent reason to believe the prosecution story, requesting the judge to grant his client bail.

An FIR has been lodged at the Docks police station under the sections 392 (punishment for robbery), 397 (robbery or dacoity with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.