Pleas of 13 convicts in lynching case dismissed

LAHORE: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday dismissed appeals of 13 convicts against their sentence in Sialkot lynching case while acquitted nine police officials giving them the benefit of the doubt.
An angry mob had in 2010 lynched two brothers Mughees Sajjad and Muneeb Sajjad in presence of police officials. The convicted policemen, including former district police officer Waqar Chohan pleaded that no police official was present on the scene where the unfortunate incident had occurred.
They said complainant implicated them in the case with mala fide intention. The trial court awarded three-year jail along with imposition of fine on each policeman. They were former SHO Rana Ilyas, ASI Waris and constables Tariq Mahmood, Muhammad Akram, Mubarak Ali, Muhammad Yasin, Muhammad Bashir, and Naseer Ahmed.
While the other convicts of death sentence and life term contended that the trial court had not conducted the trial fairly and was under the pressure of superior courts and media. They pleaded that they had no link with the lynching of the two brothers and prayed to set aside the conviction.
However, the prosecuation counsel told the bench that the convicts were identified through video footages of the lynching episode. He presented a copy of the video before the bench. The bench dismissed appeals of 13 convicts and acquitted nine police officials.