What’s in a name?: Will the real Babu please stand up?

Man with the same alias as a ‘criminal’ says he’s not the one.

KARACHI: A man is asking for bail by arguing that the name on the FIR is not his but he happens to have the same alias. 

Abid Rehman alias Babu was arrested on January 20, 2012 for possession of weapons. But, earlier, on December 14, 2011 a man named Babu was reportedly involved in what the police were saying was a shoot-out in Gulshan-e-Iqbal’s Block 4. The challan of that case names a Babu as one of the suspects. Now the police are saying that Abid Rehman aka Babu is the same one in the second case.

However, Abid’s lawyer told the Anti-Terrorism Court No 1 on Wednesday that he was not the same person. The prosecutor argued back that the man had been identified as one of the perpetrators and that even if the name were incorrect, the identification mattered more. The police had identified Abid as the Babu in both cases.

The challan of the December 14 case states that several men attacked a police mobile unit in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, attempted to hide in a nearby school and were arrested. Their accomplices managed to escape. The police seized weapons and cell phones from the men as well as the uniform of an assistant sub-inspector.

The First Information Report (509/2011) of the police shoot-out was registered by the Mobina Town Police and includes charges of abetment, assaulting a public servant, attempted murder, impersonating a public servant and using clothing or items that belong to them, as well as the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 31^st, 2012.