Impersonator seeks to spring dacoity suspects from jail

Man posing as complainant tries to withdraw complaint against suspects.


Rana Yasif April 08, 2011

LAHORE:


A robbery case took a baffling turn here after two different men with identical computerised national identity card particulars and claiming to be the complainants appeared before a judicial magistrate and made contradictory statements.


On March 21, the ‘complainant’ in the case told Judicial Magistrate Shafique Ahmed at Cantt Kutchery that the five men named as accused in the FIR had not been nominated by him, but by the police. The accused then applied for bail.

But at the bail hearing on April 1, the complainant that appeared was a different man and he said he had nominated the five accused.

Both men had computerised national identity cards bearing number 35202-63251142-3 and identifying them as Haji Muhammad Asif, son of Muhammad Din, of address 25-A/1 Angoori Bagh Scheme No II, Mughalpura, Lahore.

The judicial magistrate believes that the actual complainant was the man who appeared on April 1. He has been directed by the district and sessions judge to conduct an inquiry and has sent a copy of the ID card provided by the complainant on March 21 to the National Database and Registration Authority.

On March 21, the man claiming to be the complainant came to court to record his statement against the five accused. But he surprised the magistrate by saying that the accused named in the FIR  Javed Iqbal, Faisal Shah, Nadir Khan, Muhammad Javed and Waheed Gul – were not responsible for a Rs450,000 dacoity at his house.

The magistrate asked him why he had nominated the five men at the police station. He replied that the police had forced him to name the five men. He asked the court to dispose of the case.

Following court procedure, a copy of the man’s ID card was attached to the file of the case. The accused then submitted an acquittal application under Section 249-A of the Criminal Procedure Code and the judge fixed April 1 for deciding the case.

But on April 1, the man appearing as complainant was a different person, though with the same ID card details.

He was stunned to hear about the proceedings on March 21, saying he had not recorded any sort of statement and the accused were nominated by him.

The judge then adjourned the hearing till April 15. He then sent a copy of the ID card received from the man on March 21 to Nadra and sought its report on the card. He also wrote to District and Session Judge Abdul Waheed Khan informing him about the matter. He received a response on April 6. “Magistrate is directed to hold an inquiry into the matter and if necessary proceed against the delinquent in accordance with the law,” reads the response.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 8th, 2011.

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