IHC rejects suspects’ pleas seeking access to CCTV footage in Noor murder case

Court directs police to provide statements of witnesses to defendants

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday rejected pleas of Asmat Adamjee, Zakir Jaffer and Tahir Zahoor — the co-accused in the Noor Muqqadam murder case — seeking access to the CCTV footage obtained by the police and challenging their indictment by a trial court.

The defendants are among the 12 accused indicted in the Noor murder case by the trial court.

IHC judge Justice Aamer Farooq directed the police to provide statements of all witnesses and suspects in the case to the petitioners but ruled against providing them with the CCTV footage.

He said that according to the order of the trial court, the suspects were given adequate time to examine the record.

Earlier this month, the suspects approached the court claiming that the police had provided incomplete case records to the defendants, which they insisted was a violation of their right to a fair trial.

The IHC order stated that the plaintiff’s counsel and prosecution had informed the court that some statements were not part of the record yet, which will be included in the supplementary statement.

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It added that the prosecution had agreed that copies of all statements, which included a transcript of CCTV footage, would be provided to the lawyers of the suspects.

Additionally, the order read that the prosecution had also agreed to provide supplementary statements of Shaukat Muqqadam and a head constable, which were recorded on August 8 and August 14 respectively.

The court said that the defendants were of the view that they had not received copies of the statements which were recorded in the police diary.

It added that there was a high risk that the CCTV footage might be leaked to the public, which could affect the trial.

Furthermore, the trial court of Islamabad will record testimonies of five more witnesses in the Noor Muqqadam murder case.

The case will be presided over by Additional District and Sessions Judge Atta Rabbani.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 27^th, 2021.