ATC issues non-bailable warrants for police officer in explosives case

KARACHI:

An anti-terrorism court (ATC) issued on Thursday non-bailable arrest warrants for a police officer over his repeated absence in the hearings of an explosives case he was investigating.

The warrants were issued for Inspector Ismail Lashari of Sohrab Goth police station as he kept neglecting court orders for months and remained absent from court to record his statement nor did he produce any witnesses.

The case, in question, has seen more than two dozen hearings since its registration in October 2014 and is now lingering at the evidence stage. During the course of trial, the investigating officer appeared only four times, stated the case diary, adding that he had been issued a show-cause notice as well. There are six witnesses, all of them policemen, named in the charge sheet of the case. According to the prosecution, the witnesses mentioned were present at the scene when the accused, Kazim Raza Jaffri, was arrested and a rifle grenade was seized from him. The court file also contained an order of the Sindh High Court in which the trial court was directed to decide the matter within 60 days.

The ATC-I judge, Bashir Ahmed Khoso, apparently irked over the negligence on part of the investigator, directed SSP Garden headquarters to produce Lashari at the next hearing on June 13.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2015.