SC acquits two accused persons after 12 years

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has acquitted two persons 12 years after they had been accused of murder and arrested. On Wednesday, a three-member bench, headed by Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail and comprising Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, accepted the appeal of the accused Muhammad Ijaz alias Billa and set aside both the death sentence awarded to him as well the life imprisonment given to his alleged accomplice Naseem Akhtar by the trial court and high court.

The court said that Muhammad Ijaz was accused of killing the husband of his co-accused in 2010. According to the plaintiff/complainant’s case, both the accused were found giving electric shocks to the victim and when they were caught red-handed, Muhammad Ijaz had opened fire on the deceased who died on the spot.

According to the petitioners’ lawyer, a case of suicide was declared as murder, and no illicit relations among the accused were established. The counsel further submitted that the plaintiff did not give a share of the family inheritance to the deceased, on which the deceased killed himself.

According to the prosecution, the plaintiff was an eyewitness to the incident. The plaintiff has said though that the deceased had told him about the illicit relationship between the accused, and the plaintiff himself was not an eyewitness of the alleged illicit relationship. There is a contradiction in the statements since the deceased did not register a case against his wife and Muhammad Ijaz alias Billa.

The court held that it was surprising that the subordinate court declared an illicit relationship without any evidence while the incident happened in broad daylight but no one supported the story given in the plaintiff’s case.The court noted that, according to the record, the accused woman used to pressure her husband to get the family inheritance. She was also separated from the children through the legal system, which it was noted was having an impact on the children. According to the court, “In light of available evidence, both the accused including Muhammad Ijaz alias Billa and Naseem Akhtar are acquitted”.