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Thursday March 28, 2024

Judge dismisses bail of six suspects, says they ruined friend’s trust

By Yousuf Katpar
August 19, 2022

A sessions court has dismissed the bail pleas of six suspects in a case related to the death of a young man who fell from a multi-storey building in the upscale locality of Defence Housing Authority.

Syed Muhammad Ammar, Usman Ahmed, Owais, Uzair Ahmed, Ahmed Jamil, and Syed Faaz were charged and arrested following the death of their 26-year-old friend Adil Masood Khan on July 31. The suspects through their lawyers filed applications with Additional Sessions Judge-X Shahid Ali Memon, seeking post-arrest bail. After hearing arguments from both defence and prosecution sides, the judge dismissed their bail pleas.

The counsel for the suspects contended that their clients were innocent and had falsely been implicated in the case. The deceased was their friend who died after falling from the balcony of a flat on the 17th floor of the building, he maintained, demanding that they be released on bail.

On the other hand, the state prosecutor argued that the accused persons didn’t deserve to be released on bail as they abandoned their friend after the incident and fled with a mala fide intention. He said the police have incorporated Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in the case, due to which they were not entitled to any concession of bail.

The judge noted that the accused claimed themselves to be close friends of the deceased, but they left him unattended. “Therefore, under such circumstances, it can be said that the accused persons ruined the trust of [their] friend,” he added.

If it is presumed that the accused persons being friends of the deceased didn’t have any mala fide intention on their part, then the question arises as to why they left his body unattended, the judge wondered and added that the case was at an investigation stage and if bail was considered under such circumstances, it would amount to encouraging such a bad behaviour of the accused.

Masood, a resident of Gulistan-e-Jauhar, died after falling off the 17th floor of a high-rise building near Do Darya in mysterious circumstances on the morning of July 31. An FIR was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s sister Varda Masood at Darakhshan police station under Section 322 (manslaughter) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC.

The investigating officer said the youth had rented the apartment where they were having a party when Khan went to the balcony from where he fell. His friends fled the scene as neither they shifted him to a hospital nor informed anyone about the incident. The building administration later shifted the deceased to a hospital.

During initial interrogation, the police officer said the suspects confessed that they were using drugs at the flat.

According to the complainant, she resides in Lahore and received a call from her brother’s friend, Hammad, who informed her about the alleged accident. She travelled to Karachi after she was informed about the death of her brother. She said her brother’s friends left him and fled after he fell from a flat in DHA. The body was lying in an open area for hours before the administration of the building shifted it to a hospital.

IO given time to file charge sheet

When the case came up for hearing before Judicial Magistrate-V (South) Mazhar Ali, the IO was called absent. The magistrate, adjourning the hearing until Aug 20, directed the IO to furnish the final inquiry report under the Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) by the next date of hearing.