Sixteen rioting suspects acquitted

Farzana Iqbal says suspects were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

KARACHI:

The Malir district and sessions court recently acquitted 16 people book on charges of rioting after the prosecution failed to successfully press charges against them.

Police had arrested Mohsin Siyal, Miraj Khaskheli, Sajid Ahmed, Ayub, and Sohail Ahmed for damaging vehicles, blocking National Highway and firing on a group of policemen in March 2010. An FIR was registered under sections 147, 148, 324, 149, 427 and 337-A of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Steel Town police station . The remaining 11 suspects were maintained as absconders. Charges were brought against all of the suspects in November 2011, but the prosecution failed to produce a single witness against them.

“The charges were groundless due to insufficient evidence, and there was no probability of the suspects being convicted for the alleged offence,” said Malir’s third additional district and sessions judge Farzana Iqbal. The suspects were acquitted under section 265-K of the Criminal Procedure Code.

One of the accused, Mohsin Siyal, was also acquitted by Judge Iqbal in another case. Siyal had been accused of firing at the door of the complainant’s house. Siyal and three others, Saeed Mir, Fahad Soomro and Naveed Mirani, were absolved of the charges due to insufficient evidence. Jail personnel were ordered to release the men if they were not wanted in any other case.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 2^nd, 2012.