Drag race accident: SC disposes of case, refers it to trial court

Heirs of the deceased accept blood money from four of the six accused.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday disposed of the suo motu case of Bahria Town drag race accident in which five people lost their lives, and directed the session court to continue the trial proceedings. The trial court will hear the case on December 3.

Punjab’s acting advocate general told a three-member bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, that the issue has “almost been settled”.

He said that under the FIR, all six accused in the accident were charged of murder with intent but an additional sessions judge of Rawalpindi declared it murder-without-intent under which the accused are liable to pay diyat (blood money) for their crime.

The six accused in the case are Bahria Town Chief Executive Ali Riaz, who is the son of real estate tycoon Malik Riaz; the car driver, Majid Naeem; Bahria Town Chief Security Officer, Colonel (retired) Rafaqat; Bahria Town Senior Marketing Manger, Waleed Aman; the event organiser, Sheikh Atif and his partner Adil Naeem.

In its order, the apex court observed that the heirs of the victims have accepted blood money from Ali Riaz, Col (retd) Rafaqat, Waleed Aman and Adil Naeem. However, the heirs are not willing to compromise with the car driver, who is current in jail,  and the event organiser who fled to Dubai. The advocate general said the court had earlier directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) to get Atif repatriated from Dubai but a court in Dubai granted him relief.

All stakeholders in the case, including the relatives of the deceased, seemed satisfied with the court decision.

The drag race event turned into a tragedy on December 5 last year when one of the competitors crushed five spectators after losing control of his vehicle near the finish line. Those who lost their lives in the accident were Babar Ali and his 11-year-old son Asfandyar Ali, Sohail Khan and his son Danyal Khan and Mohsin Javed, son of Colonel Javed.

Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed told the court that the Bahria Town management conducted the car race despite the fact that he had not granted permission to them to hold the event.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2011.