Four handed down life imprisonment in kidnapping for ransom case

An anti-terrorism court has handed down life imprisonment on two counts to four men in a kidnapping for ransom case.

Afarsiyab, Iqbal Ahmed, alias DJ, Manzoor Hussain and Hafiz Azam were found guilty of kidnapping Muhammad Talib Aziz, a doctor, from Babar Hospital near Old Subzi Mandi in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on June 14, 2022 and releasing him later after payment of a ransom amount of Rs3 million.

The ATC-XVI judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central prison, observed that the prosecution fully established its case against the accused persons beyond any shadow of doubt, including offences of captivity and money laundering.

“Section 237 [of] CrPC enable this court to convict a person of an offence which is disclosed in evidence and for which he might have been charged by them though he was not charged with it,” he said.

The judge awarded life imprisonment to the four convicts for offence of abduction for ransom as punishable under the Section 365-A of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) read with the Section 34 and ordered that their properties be forfeited to the government.

He handed down life term on a second count to them for committing an offence punishable under the Section 7-e (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 (ATA). The judge sentenced the accused to one-year imprisonment with a fine of Rs3,000 each for the offence of wrongfully confining the abducted man for around eight hours — an offence punishable under Section 342 of the PPC.

All the accused were further convicted for the offence of fund arrangement as defined under the Section 11-J of ATA and sentenced to six-year imprisonment. Additionally, accused Iqbal and Manzoor were awarded seven-year imprisonment for possession of illegal arms.

The judge said the sentences awarded to the convicts would run concurrently and extended the benefit of the Section 382-B of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to them, which means that the period since their arrest would count in their prison term.

According to State Prosecutor Muhammad Raza, the four accused kidnapped the victim, Talib Aziz, from Habib Chamber in Gulshan-e-Iqbal on June 14, 2022. One of the kidnappers called the abducted doctor’s son Muhammad Ali, who is the complainant in the case, using his father’s mobile phone at 11am and demanded Rs50 million ransom for his release. The kidnappers kept calling the complainant to negotiate the ransom amount until they agreed to the payment of Rs3 million.

The accused released the abducted man near the Jamali Flyover after the ransom had been paid. The prosecutor contended that on June 23, 2023, the police, acting on spy information, intercepted a car near the Jamali Flyover on the main Super Highway and arrested the four accused. He argued that there was sufficient evidence to link the accused with commissioning of the offence and requested the judge to punish them as per the law.

The accused, on the other hand, denied allegations of the prosecution and claimed innocence. Separate cases were lodged against the accused at the New Town police station for kidnapping for ransom and possession of illegal arms.