Court sentences three extortionists to 11-year jail terms

Convicts were accused of threatening the owner of a motorcycle manufacturing company.

KARACHI:

Three extortionists were sentenced to 11 years in imprisonment by the Anti-Terrorism Court on Tuesday after being found guilty of extorting money from the complainant of the case, Muhammad Shafiq.

Shafiq had accused Nematullah, Hameedullah and Abdul Baqi of asking him for extortion money. Zahida Sikandar, an additional district and sessions and anti-terrorism judge in district West, announced the verdict after recording the evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

According to the prosecution, the accused and his accomplices had initially demanded Rs1.5 million as extortion money from Shafiq, owner of a motorcycle manufacturing company, and threatened him of dire consequences if he did not pay. Later on, the accused demanded Rs5 million and threatened to blow up his company if he failed to pay the amount.

In a joint operation, the police and the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) arrested the men after tracing their location in Manghopir.

A case, No. 301/12, under section 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 506 (B) (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the Pakistan Penal Code, section 25 (A) of Telegraph Act read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, was registered against the men at the Manghopir police station.



The prosecution proved the case through witnesses, circumstantial evidence and mobile phone data. The mobile phone data confirmed that the accused had threatened Shafiq and demanded extortion money. The suspects also confessed to their involvement in the latter stages of the case.

The judge awarded five-year imprisonment each in section 386 and 506 (B) and one-year imprisonment under the Telegraph Act. The judge also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 and if the convicts were unable to pay, they would have to undergo three more months in prison.

The accused were remanded back to the prison to serve out the sentence.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2013.