SHC sets aside death sentence of two in child rape, murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday set aside death sentence and life imprisonment of two convicts in a child rape and murder case as the prosecution failed to prove charges against them.

Bashir Ahmed and Abdul Majeed were sentenced to death and life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court for kidnapping, raping and murdering a six-year-old girl on December 14, 2011 in the Jauharabad area.

According to the prosecution, the appellants had kidnapped the girl and killed her after subjecting her to rape, following which they threw her body in a drain.

A counsel for the appellants submitted that his clients were falsely implicated in the case by the complainant and the police on account of dispute over paint works. They submitted that the prosecution had failed to produce any eyewitness or any other evidence to prove its case against the appellants.

An additional prosecutor general submitted that retracted extrajudicial confession of the appellants to the police were admissible in the law and could be used against them as those were corroborated by other pieces of evidence.

He submitted that the prosecution had proved all the charges against the appellants, requesting the high court to dismiss the appeals.

A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after hearing the arguments and perusal of evidence observed that there were no eyewitness to the kidnapping, rape, murder or dumping of the body.

The high court observed that the prosecution’s story mainly revolved around the retracted extrajudicial confessions made by the appellants and it had been well settled by now that a confession made before the police was inadmissible as evidence.

The bench observed that no DNA report had been produced to prove the rape charges against the appellants. The high court also observed that it was a golden principle of criminal jurisprudence that the prosecution must prove its case against the accused beyond any reasonable doubt and the benefit of the doubt must go to the accused by way of right as opposed to the concession.

The SHC extended the benefit of the doubt to the appellants and set aside the trial court’s conviction. The high court also ordered release of the appellants forthwith unless they were wanted in any other custody case.