SHC dismisses appeal against life imprisonment in wife murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday dismissed the appeal of a policeman against his life imprisonment sentence for the murder of his wife.

Syed Qamar Abbas Shah was sentenced to life imprisonment by a South additional district and sessions court on November 13, 2019. According to the prosecution, the appellant had killed his wife Kaneez Akbar by shooting her with his official rifle at his residence on April 27, 2014.

A counsel for the appellant submitted that he had been involved in the case falsely by the complainant party who substituting him with the real culprit of the incident and the doubtful evidence of the prosecution witness had been believed by the trial court without lawful justification.

A deputy prosecutor general supported the trial court order by contending that the prosecution had been able to prove its case against the appellant beyond any shadow of doubt. A single bench of the SHC comprising Justice Irshad Ali Shah after hearing the arguments observed that the prosecution witnesses were real children of the appellant who had testified against him for the offence he had committed.

The high court observed that the prosecution witnesses had no reasons for falsely involving their own father in the murder case of their own mother by substituting him with the real culprit.

The bench observed that whatever stated by the complainant and her witnesses took support from ancillary evidence which could not be disbelieved on account of irrelevant and immaterial consistencies with regard to the time of death and the arrest of the appellant.

The high court observed that the trial court was right to conclude that the prosecution had been able to prove its case against the appellant beyond any shadow of doubt. The SHC observed that the reason which prevailed with the trial court for awarding lesser punishment to the appellant obviously was that there was no motive of the incident. The bench observed that there was no case to interfere with the impugned judgment and dismissed the appeal.