Charge-sheet against accused not submitted for 12 years

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ATC directs IG Sindh to conduct an inquiry into the matter

Tuesday, April 13, 2010
By Jamal Khurshid

Karachi

The Administrative Judge (AJ), Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Karachi, Justice Maqbool Baqar directed the IG Sindh to depute an efficient police officer to conduct an inquiry into the non-submission of charge sheet in a case despite a lapse of 12 years.

The direction came in the application of a female convict whose case has been pending before the ATC for the last 12 years without any indictment and submission of charge sheet. Nasreen Asif and her daughter Sadaf were sentenced to life imprisonment by the ATC in a kidnapping for ransom case in December 1998.

According to the jail roll, Nasreen has already undergone almost 12 years of imprisonment including 10 years of remission. She was booked in case 172/98 pertaining to kidnapping for ransom and robbery charges and same was registered at Sharifabad police station.

The woman sent letters for her release on parole before the Home Department as well as the chief justice of the Sindh High Court (SHC). Last year, the SHC directed the Home Department to consider the applicant for release on parole under good conduct of prisoner rules.

The Home Department informed that though a case was registered against the women in 1998, it was not charge sheeted before the ATC. The ATC’s presiding officer submitted in his comments that the woman’s case was not charge sheeted before the court and the record and proceedings were not available in the court records.

However, the investigation officer Zafar, who was then deputed in Sharifabad, maintained that a charge sheet was submitted before the trial court and he possessed a photocopy of it. Notification suspended: The SHC suspended a notification by the Law Department pertaining to the transfer of Deputy Prosecutor General and Assistant Prosecutor General to lower judiciary.