SHC overturns conviction of two men in drug smuggling case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has set aside the life imprisonment conviction of two men in a drug smuggling case. Islam Shah and Shaukat Ali had been sentenced to serve life in jail by the Control of Narcotic Substances Court on November 11, 2015, for smuggling 80 kilograms of hashish.

According to the prosecution, the Pakistan Coast Guards had received information that a huge quantity of charas was being smuggled from Swabi to Karachi through a private coach. The Coast Guards had arrested the drivers of the coach from the Super Highway near Sohrab Goth and recovered 80 kilograms of hashish that was concealed in secret cavities of the vehicle.

The appellant’s counsel said his clients were falsely implicated in the case as the prosecution had failed to prove the safe custody and the safe transmission of the narcotics to the chemical examiner.

He said that the trial court had failed to apply judicial mind and the judgment had been delivered in a slipshod manner. He requested the court to acquit the appellants by extending them the benefit of the doubt.

The special prosecutor of the Coast Guards said that the prosecution had proved its case, and that there had been eyewitnesses in whose presence the appellants were arrested, while 72 packets of hashish containing 80 kilograms had been recovered from the vehicle.

He said that there was no major contradiction between the depositions of the complainant and the prosecution witnesses, while the safe custody and transmission of the narcotics to the chemical examiner had been proven, which had led to a positive chemical.

After hearing the arguments of the counsels and the perusal of the evidence, an SHC division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Zulfiqar Ali Sangi said that there were major contradictions and dishonest improvements in the prosecution’s case.

The bench said that the mere heinousness of the charge and the recovery of a huge quantity of the alleged contraband was no grounds to convict the accused. The court said that the prosecution had not proved the safe custody and the safe transmission of the property to the chemical examiner, which rendered the chemical report worthless.

The bench said that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the appellants beyond any reasonable doubt by producing reliable, trustworthy and confidence-inspiring evidence. The SHC then set aside the trial court’s verdict, and ordered releasing the appellants if not required in other cases.