A model court on Monday dismissed a bail application filed by an accused in a double murder case. On May 30, five brothers, who owned an ice-cream parlour, were on their way to the City Courts to appear in a murder case when armed assailants riding motorcycles attacked them near Gurumandir, killing two of the siblings on the spot and injuring as many. The fifth brother escaped the attack unhurt.
Additional Sessions Judge Aziz Ur Rehman Junejo of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) dismissed an application filed by accused Iqbal Zareen seeking post-arrest bail in the case. "Prima facie reasonable grounds do exit to believe that the applicant/accused is involved in the commission of alleged offence," the judge observed, ruling that he failed to make out a case for grant of bail.
The applicant's lawyer contended that the accused was innocent and had falsely been implicated in this case as he was not nominated in the FIR of the incident. He said the accused, supervisor of an ice-cream shop owned by main accused Mian Zar and his sons, had left for his native place before the incident and was not present at the crime scene. He also placed on record a bus ticket to back up the claim.
State prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti argued that the accused was implicated in the case after he was identified by prosecution witnesses in CCTV footage of the incident. He said that the accused was visible in CCTV footage as per statement of witnesses, requesting the judge to dismiss the bail plea.
In his detailed order, the judge noted: "There is previous enmity between complainant party and co-accused persons and the applicant/accused is employee of the co-accused persons and his appearance is visible in CCTV footage with co-accused persons as per statement under Section 161 of the CrPC of prosecution witnesses, which is in line with the case of prosecution. In the above incident two persons were killed and two others sustained bulled injuries and all are relatives."
He said that the bus ticket produced by the accused was not issued in his name but in the name of Rehman Zareen and that it was a return ticket from Buner to Karachi. "Therefore, argument of learned counsel for applicant/accused remained unsupported and cannot be believed. However, presence of applicant is well established from the statement of prosecution witnesses, including eye witnesses," he said, pointing out that the material furnished by the counsel cannot be considered at this stage as it is well law that bail is to be decided on tentative assessment and deeper appreciation is not permissible at this stage.
An FIR was lodged at the Jamshed Quarters police station under sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of Shahzaib.
The complainant stated in the FIR that he ran an ice-cream parlour. He said Mian Zar was an uncle of his father, as well as the father-in-law of his brother Sajid Khan, adding that in the year 2023, the son of Mian Zar was murdered, after which his son, Riaz, had lodged an FIR against the five brothers.
The complainant stated that on May 30, he along with his brothers Sajid Khan, Umair, Zubair and Wajid left house in a car to appear before a court in the murder case. The accused persons -- Mian Zar, his three sons -- Arshad, Rashid, Riaz -- his grandson Amir and others on five to six motorcycles opened fire on their car near Gurumandir he said, adding that that he heard accused Mian Zar saying "no one should be spared and "kill all of them" when they attacked the car. He said his two brothers, Sajid and Umair, sustained fatal injuries while he escaped unhurt by hiding behind the seat in the car.
