An anti-terrorism court on Tuesday dropped Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) sections in a case, registered in connection with the Kasur child abuse scandal.
The court also transferred the case to Kasur sessions’ court for further hearing.
ATC-IV Judge Chaudhry Muhammad Ilyas passed these orders while accepting an application, filed by the accused Haseem Amir, Ali Majeed and Faizan Majeed.
Earlier, the defence counsel, arguing before the court, submitted that Ganda Singh Wala police had registered the FIR No 261/15 against the accused under the ATA sections. He contended that the offence did not fall under the ATA and pleaded with the court to drop the ATA sections and transfer the case to an ordinary court for hearing.
However, the prosecution opposed the request and pleaded with the court to dismiss the application.
The court, after hearing arguments, dropped the ATA sections and transferred the case hearing to the sessions court.
The court had already dropped ATA sections in many cases, registered in connection with the scandal.
Ganda Singh Wala/Kasur police had registered a total of 31 cases in connection with the Kasur child abuse scandal against 20 accused. 25 cases were registered under sections of 506, 293, 387, 386 and 377 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and sections of the Anti-Terrorism Act, whereas six other cases were registered under sections of CrPC alone.