SHC dismisses appeal of three convicts in acid attack case

By Jamal Khurshid
January 20, 2025
The front facade of the Sindh High Court building in Karachi. — AFP/File

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has dismissed the appeal of three convicts, including a woman, against their conviction in a case of throwing acid on their neighbour in Surjani Town.

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Appellants Azra, Jibran and Farhan had been sentenced to 14 years in prison by the additional district & sessions court (West) for throwing acid on their female neighbour and injuring her over a dispute.

According to the prosecution, complainant Shamshad Masih had asked the appellants to remove the electricity wire coming out of their house so that nobody could get harmed. However, the appellants misbehaved with the family, and on August 13, 2019, they went to the complainant’s house and threw acid on his daughter-in-law Chanda.

The appellants’ counsel claimed that his clients are innocent and have been falsely implicated in the case because there was no recovery of acid or its container from the place of the incident during the investigation.

The counsel claimed that the letter on whose basis Chanda was referred to the medico-legal officer (MLO) shows that she got burnt by throwing acid herself, and that there were inconsistencies in the medical report, while the chemical report is unavailable.

The deputy prosecutor general, however, supported the impugned judgment, saying that the prosecution had been successful in proving the case against the appellants. After hearing the arguments of the counsel and the perusal of the evidence, a single SHC bench headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro said the perusal of evidence of all the witnesses shows that the prosecution had succeeded in discharging the burden of proving the charge against the appellants.

The court said the victim has unequivocally revealed that all the appellants, who were already known to her being her neighbours, had thrown acid on her. The bench said the evidence of the victim is consistent with the revelations made by the MLO, who has opined that there were nine per cent burn marks on various parts of her body, including neck, arm, legs and trunk.

The court said the appellants have taken a specific plea of being arrayed in the case due to a property dispute, but they have failed to bring on record any material remotely suggesting that the parties were at loggerheads on account of any dispute over property.

The bench said that it appears that over a petty issue, namely removing an electricity wire belonging to them from rainwater, they disputed with the complainant party and later on threw acid on the victim, as a result of which she sustained multiple burn injuries on her body, as proved by the medical certificates.

The SHC said that there is nothing on record to show that the appellants have been falsely implicated in this case due to any motive or enmity between the parties. The court said that it found no merits in the instant appeal, and dismissed the same.

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