PHC sets aside life term to 2 in murder case

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) set aside the life imprisonment of two convicts in a murder case.

A division bench comprising Justice Ghazanfar Khan and Justice Arshad Ali set aside the conviction of Inam and Sajjad.

Counsel for the convicts, Sahibzada Asadullah, submitted that Bismillah Jan, Muhammad Ayaz, Inam and Sajjad had been convicted for life imprisonment for the murder of Sardar Ali, a resident of Kanju town in the Swat district. He argued that as per the first information report lodged at Kanju Police Station on February 18, 2016, the convicts had allegedly killed Sardar Ali with a knife over a land dispute. The lawyer argued that one person’s murder with one knife has been claimed against four people in the case, which shows mala fide intention on part of the complainant.

Second, he submitted that the complainant of the case was shown as injured person in the FIR, but as per the medical report, there was no sign of injuries on his body. Furthermore, he submitted, there was also a conflict in the statements of witnesses, which showed that the appellants have been wrongly convicted in the case.

He requested the court to set aside the life imprisonment term awarded by the trial court. The court set aside the conviction of Inam and Sajjad, while maintained the life imprisonment of Muhammad Ayaz as another convict, Bismillah Jan, had died during the case.