Unable to pay surety, driver who mowed down motorcyclist sent to jail

A court on Thursday sent to jail a driver who mowed down a motorcyclist near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine in Clifton.

Ali Abbas Narejo has been booked and arrested on charges of negligent driving after a pickup truck he was driving ran over and killed 18-year-old Abdullah Mairaj within the jurisdiction of the Boat Basin police station on Wednesday.

Investigating officer Abdul Ghaffar produced the detained suspect before Judicial Magistrate (South) Rijhoo Mal. He stated that the suspect’s custody was not required for investigation, requesting the court to send him to jail on 14-day judicial remand. Noting that the charges invoked against the suspect are bailable, the magistrate directed him to furnish a Rs6,757,902 surety, which, he said, is equivalent to the amount of diyat as prescribed under Section 323 of the Pakistan Penal Code, to secure his release on bail.

However, the magistrate remanded the suspect in judicial custody until May 8 after he failed to furnish the surety. The IO was told to submit an investigation report as required under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) within the stipulated time as per the law.

An FIR has been lodged under sections 320 (punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the PPC. According to the police, a fast-moving vehicle ran over Abdullah Mairaj, a resident of Neelum Colony. The driver, said to be a Sindh government official, had fled the scene after the accident but was later apprehended and the vehicle was impounded.