Two men get life term for abducting boy who died during captivity

An anti-terrorism court on Thursday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for the abduction of a minor boy, which resulted in his death.

Moula Bux, alias Moli, and Danish Maqbool, along with accomplices, were found guilty of kidnapping 11-year-old Abdul Rehman from Rangiwara, Lyari, on December 12, 2020. The boy is said to have died of fear during captivity and his burned body was found a week later.

The ATC-XV judge ruled that the prosecution proved its case against the accused persons beyond any shadow of reasonable doubt. He said both the accused, along with their deceased accomplice Sarban and absconding accused Saud as well as two to three other unknown suspects had kidnapped the minor in furtherance of their common intention.

“The evidence brought on record shows that all the accused persons in furtherance of common intention are involved in the abduction and murder of deceased Abdul Rehman aged about 11 years and they are equally responsible for the said particular act,” he noted.

The two convicts were handed life term on two counts: one for offence punishable under Section 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of fourteen) of the Pakistan Penal Code, and the other under terrorism charge.

They were ordered to pay Rs400,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased, and in case of failure, they would have to undergo additional one-year imprisonment. The convicts were remanded back to the prison to serve out the sentences that shall run concurrently.

The judge kept the case against the absconding accused on dormant file till their arrest or surrender. According to state prosecutor Ghulam Abbas Dalwani, on December 12, 2020, complainant Muhammad Hanif Baloch’s 11-year-old son Abdul Rehman went missing after he left home in Rangiwara, Lyari. After searching for him, Baloch reported the disappearance of his son to the police, suspecting kidnapping.

On December 20, police received information about a burnt body found in the Baghdadi police station jurisdiction. The boy was later identified as Abdul Rehman by his mother with the help of a piece of his clothing.

In January 2021, accused Moula Bux, alias Moli was arrested and confessed to the crime, disclosing accomplices Sarban, Saud and Danish. On his pointation, Danish and Sarban were also arrested. All the accused confessed during interrogation that they took the boy to the house of a maternal aunt of Danish’s wife in Gulshan-e-Mazdoor, Hub River Road, after abducting him and tied him to a chair.

They said the boy died of fear, after which they poured chemicals, and rose water over his body before stuffing him with sand in a sack and dumped the sack in a washroom. Upon learning of the aunt’s return from England, they disposed of the body near the Baghdadi slaughterhouse on December 20.

Moula Bux in his confessional statement said he would supply crystal meth for Sarban. One person, Arshad Kodu, was not giving Rs10,000 for the drug he bought and Sarban was demanding the amount, he said, adding that so he kidnapped Kodu’s maternal nephew and handed him to Sarban and Saud.

The prosecutor contended that there was a chain of circumstantial evidence that connected the present accused with the commissioning of the offence. He said they kidnapped the boy and held him captive for extortion, and when he died due to their illegal acts, they burnt the body with chemical and poured rose water and kept it in the attached bathroom of the house before dumping it. He said statements of prosecution witnesses as well as medical evidence supported the prosecution case, requesting the judge to punish the accused as per the law.

Sarban was the son of notorious Lyari gangster Rehman Dakait and was killed in an encounter with law enforcers. He was granted bail in this case.

On the other hand, the defence counsel claimed that their clients were innocent and had been falsely implicated in the case. Both accused cited alibi, requesting the judge to acquit them in the case.

Initially, an FIR was lodged at the Chakiwara police station under Section 364-A of the PPC on the complaint of the boy’s father. During investigation, the police added sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc), 302 (murder), and 34 (common intention) of the PPC and Section 7 (punishment for terror acts) of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.