Extortion charges: ATC accepts plea to transfer case to sessions court

Judge says no other evidence available apart from phone conversation.

KARACHI: Investigators suffered a setback on Friday when an anti-terrorism court accepted the plea of two suspects, a man and a woman, to conduct their trial under extortion charges by a sessions court.

“Apart from the phone conversation, no other evidence was available on record that could establish a sense of fear in the public,” remarked a judge of the ATC-III.

The court accepted the application seeking the transfer of the extortion case to a regular court ruling that the case did not fall within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997.

The suspect, Waqar Ahmed, and his accomplice, Meeran, are facing charges of demanding extortion money and threatening the complainant of the case, Aslam Khan, in the limits of the Clifton police station in June 2013.

According to the prosecution, the suspects had made several phone calls on the cellphone of the complainant’s wife and threatened to kidnap their son should they fail to meet their demands. Following the threats, Khan registered a case, No184/13, under sections 386 (extortion by putting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt), 387 (putting person in fear of death or of grievous hurt in order to commit extortion) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, read with section 25-D of the Telegraph Act and section 7 of the ATA at the Clifton police station.

Subsequently, the police traced the calls, arrested the suspects and seized the SIM used to threaten the couple. On the other hand, the suspects, through their counsel, moved an application under section 23 (power to transfer cases to regular courts). The defence counsel argued that the prosecution had no evidence against his clients, adding that the case did not fall under the jurisdiction of the ATC.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2014.