A sessions court on Wednesday granted post-arrest bail to the son of a former police officer in cases pertaining to an alleged armed attack on an official of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and possession of an unlicensed weapon.
Agha Shaheer Khan, son of retired SP Asgher Ali, was booked in two separate cases by the Clifton police for allegedly shooting at and injuring FBR inspector Shah Mir Lashari after a collision between their vehicles in Block-9 of Clifton on April 23, and later recovering an unlcensed pistol.
The suspect through his lawyer Wazeer Hussain Khoso moved an application before District and Sessions Judge (South) Zahoor Ahmed Hakro, seeking post-arrest bail. After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge granted him bail against a surety of Rs100,000 in one case and Rs50,000 in the other.
The defence counsel argued that his client was innocent and had been falsely implicated in the cases. He said the applicant had been nominated in the case on the basis of suspicion and hearsay information, adding that the FIR was completely silent about how the complainant allegedly came to know the name of the suspect. “Such unexplained nomination renders the prosecution story highly doubtful,” he contended.
“The identity of the applicant is itself doubtful. The complainant mentioned the name of “Agha Shehmeer” whereas the applicant’s name is Aga Shaheer. The discrepancy regarding identity creates a serious question requiring further inquiry,” the counsel said. Moreover, he said that both ocular account as well as medical evidence were also contradictory.
About the recovery of the pistol, the defence counsel said that it had been foisted upon the suspect, requesting the judge to grant him bail. The FIR was lodged against Agha Shaheer and his gunman on the complaint of Shahzeb Khan under sections 324 (attempt to murder), 337-A(i) (Shajjah) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Later sections 170 (personating a public servant), 171 (wearing garb or carrying token used by public servant with fraudulent intent), 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) , 109 (abetment), and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the PPC read with Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act were added to the case. However, the case was later transferred to the sessions courts by an anti-terrorism court.
