KARACHI, April 29: An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday recorded final arguments of the prosecution in a case pertaining to the kidnap, rape and murder of an eight-year-old girl.
Judge Ghulam Ali Samtio of the ATC-1, who is conducting the trial, adjourned the hearing till May 7 when the court will record final arguments of the defence counsel.
The special public prosecutor, Naimat Ali Randhawa, argued that the prosecution had successfully proved its case against the accused by producing ample evidence in court. He submitted that the accused had led the police to the areas where he had buried the body parts of the deceased girl and the same were disinterred by the police on his information.
He said that the prosecution had also produced two eyewitnesses, who had seen the accused with the headless body of the girl in Saddar area and both of them had also identified him in court.
He said that the accused had also voluntarily testified before the judicial magistrate and trial courts.
Mr Randhawa concluded that the accused had kidnapped the girl for ransom, raped her and then brutally killed her. He, therefore, pleaded the court to sentence the accused to death on two counts.
According to the prosecution, Tanveer Ahmed had kidnapped, Iqra, 8, on Feb 25, 2007 in the Pakistan Bazar police limits when she was playing in front of her home.
The accused, brother-in-law of the girl’s father, took her to his home and demanded Rs500,000 as ransom from the victim’s father, Saleem.
The accused later allegedly raped the girl. He then killed her and chopped her body into pieces. Police had traced the accused through the calls he had made on the complainant’s cellular phone and arrested him on March 7, 2007. During the initial interrogation, the accused said he had buried different parts of the victim’s body in Saddar and Mochko areas. The police had conducted raids on the locations pointed out by Tanveer Ahmed and exhumed the body parts.
Around 13 prosecution witnesses were examined in the case.
A case (FIR 74/2007) was lodged on the complaint of the victim’s father at the Pakistan Bazaar police station under Sections 365-A, 302 and 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7(A), (E), (I) of the Anti-terrorism Act.
Kidnapping case
The judge of the Anti-Terrorism Court-II, Abdul Ghafoor Memon, recorded the statements of three prosecution witnesses in a kidnapping for ransom case and adjourned the hearing till May 2.
The three prosecution witnesses were Judicial Magistrate Syed Ahmed Yousuf, Investigation Officer in the case Ashfaq, and property consultant Zulfikar Khosa.
According to the prosecution, Sheraz, along with the co-accused, Sub-inspector Khadim Hussain Nizamani, had allegedly kidnapped Nasir Hussain and Artaza Khan on June 17, 2006 from the limits of City Courts police station and forced them to sign some documents regarding the transfer of a property and demanded ransom for their release.
The police had registered a case (FIR 44/05) against the accused under Section 365-A of the Pakistan Penal Code at the City Courts police station on the complaint of Ms Sakina Nasir.
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