ATC summons magistrate to record statement about suspect’s confession

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An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday summoned a judicial magistrate to record his statement about the confession of a suspect in the Tahir Plaza arson attack case.Two accused, Imran Saeed, and Ahmed Saeed, alias Saeed Bharam, and 13 absconders have been charged with the murders of six people. According to the prosecution, they resorted to violence and set the plaza near the city courts on fire on April 9, 2008.Advocate Altaf Abbasi and five of his clients were burnt to death in the fire at his office in the plaza. The blaze started following a spat between two groups of lawyers.Rangers prosecutor Chaudhary Mehmood Anwar submitted before the ATC-XIII judge that witness Imran Imam Zaidi was posted then as a judicial magistrate in the South district, when he had record the confessional statements of both the detained accused under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.The statement of the magistrate could not be recorded due to the non-availability of the confessional statements and other related documents. The judge told the witness to appear before the court at the next date along with the relevant documents and record his statement.However, the judge recorded the statement of a second prosecution witness, head constable Abdul Rehman.The witness deposed that he was posted at the Risala police station, when he accompanied the IO of the present case when he arrested the accused Imran at the Garden police station, where he was already detained in connection with another case.The witness deposed that he was the witness to the arrest and also produced a copy of the memo of the arrest of the accused in the present case. After recording the statement, the judge summoned other witnesses to testify on October 9.The court also accepted an application filed by the investigating officer of the case regarding the completion of the process of the proclamation and attachment of the properties of the absconders, Rizwan and Nawab, under sections 87 and 88 of the Criminal Procedure Code.The court asked to initiate the process against both the suspects on a previous hearing after the IO submitted that both the alleged suspects had purportedly gone into hiding and there was no likelihood of their arrest in the near future.

from The News International - Karachi https://ift.tt/2lREpyP
The News International - Karachi