Special public prosecutor for Rangers SajidMehboob Sheikh made rebuttal to the final arguments advanced by Advocate M.T. Khan and MansoorAkhtar, defence counsel for Zubair alias Chariya and Abdul Rehman alias Bhola at the An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in the Baldia factory fire case.
The counsel for both accused and others, in their final arguments, had denied the allegations leveled by the prosecution against their clients, claiming innocence on the part of their clients and pleaded to acquit them.
Nine accused — including MuttahidaQaumi Movement leader and then provincial minister for commerce and industries RaufSiddiqui; then MQM sector in-charge Abdul Rehman, alias Bhola and M. Zubair, alias Chariya — have been charged with setting ablaze the industrial unit with the help of its four gatekeepers — Shahrukh, Fazal Ahmed, ArshadMehmood and Ali Mohammad.
However, while rebutting the arguments of both the accused persons’ defence counsel, prosecutor Shaikh contended that the allegations of the prosecution against the accused persons were fully corroborated with the testimonies of nearly 400 prosecution witnesses by the material evidence, including the reports of the chemical, ballistics, forensic and DNA tests conducted in Punjab and Karachi and the army’s laboratory that the incident was allegedly a deliberate act of arson instead of a fire accident caused by a short-circuit.
The prosecutor rebutted that all witnesses and the first investigating officer of the case, then sub-inspector Jahanzeb, were facing life threats, thus there was an ‘explained’ delay in recording their statements, under Section 161 of the criminal procedure code, by the police. After constitution of a joint investigation team, suspect RizwanQureshi was arrested on June 17, 2013 and interrogated by the JIT on June 22, 2013.”
