SHC sets aside life imprisonment of two persons in Navy official murder case

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has set aside the life imprisonment of two persons in a case pertaining to the murder of a Navy official, stating that the prosecution had failed to prove charges on the accused.

Nazar Hussain Shah and Mohammad Shakir were sentenced to life imprisonment by an additional district and sessions court for murdering Navy official Khizar Hayat in Keamari.

According to the prosecution, the appellants were involved in the murder of Hayat whose body was found on October 21, 2012 in a pond in the Keamari area.

A counsel for the appellants submitted that the entire prosecution case was based on hearsay as no direct evidence was produced by the prosecution to connect them in the case. They submitted that the wife of the victim had alleged that the appellants were involved in the murder despite the fact that the body was not even identified to be that of Hayat as nobody saw the body and medical evidence did not reconcile with the ocular version.

A deputy prosecutor general supported the prosecution case and impugned judgment and requested the court to dismiss the appeal. A single bench of the high court headed by Justice Omar Sial after hearing the arguments of the counsel and perusal of the evidence observed that the prosecution’s record was completely silent on how it was discovered that the appellants were involved in the case. The high court observed that officials of the Pakistan Navy had told police that it was these people who murdered Hayat and then police dishonestly and maliciously created evidence in order to implicate them. The bench observed that it appeared to be very obvious that the police had simply buckled down under the pressure of some Navy officials and acted completely on their whims.

The SHC observed that no official of the Pakistan Navy was examined. The high court also observed that Navy officials seemed to have dictated arrests and recoveries. The high court observed that the prosecution case was replete with contradictions, illogical theories and on the face of it smacked of mala fide intentions.

The bench remarked that judicial confessions of the appellants along with acquitted co-accused Sakina were contrary to each other and could not be relied upon whereas the prosecution evidence with regard to recovery of motorcycle and mobile phone of the deceased as well as medical evidence with regard to his death did not establish the prosecution case.

The high court also directed the Sindh inspector general of police to look into the service record of inspector Abdul Razzak Jokhio, the investigation officer of the case, and DSP Jehan Khan and if they were still in service, determine whether they had the ability to investigate cases of such nature.

The SHC observed that the prosecution had failed to prove its case against the appellants and set aside the trial court order, ordering the appellants to be released if not required in other cases.