Ex-AAG murder case: Forensic evidence, not witnesses, enough: SC

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) Tuesday ruled that the days of witnesses were gone and now forensic reports were enough to prove someone guilty in a case.

The ruling came from Justice Qazi Muhammad Amin during the hearing of a bail petition filed by former SSP Mufakhar Adeel in the murder case of former assistant advocate general (AAG) Shahbaz Tatla. A three-member bench of the apex court — headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan — heard the case.

The bench threw out the bail application filed by the former SSP when the latter told the court that he was no more interested in seeking bail. Advocate Azam Nazir Tarar told the court that Tatla was murdered brutally while counsel for the suspect Chaudhry Ramzan said of the 32 witnesses in the case, the statements of only 13 had been recorded so far.

Justice Amin remarked that witnesses or no witnesses’ proofs against the former SSP were quite solid and irrefutable. Justice Ijazul Ahsan said Mufakhar Adeel had fled after murdering Tatla. However, Mufakhar’s counsel replied that his client had not escaped but was on duty in Gilgit-Baltistan. Advocate Tarar argued that everything, including the former SSP’s mobile phone, his location and his act of purchasing an acid, was on record.

When former SSP’s counsel complained that there had been no progress in the case for the last one year, Justice Ijazul Ahsan said if he had withdrew the bail application of his client, the court will issue directives for speeding up inquiry. Mufakhar Adeel after killing his friend Shahbaz Tatla in February 2020 dipped the body in an acid and then threw it in a gutter.