SHC sets aside life term of man in murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has set aside life imprisonment sentence of a man in a murder case stating that the prosecution had failed to prove charges against him.

Mohammad Asif was sentenced to life imprisonment by an additional district and sessions court East for murdering a man, Mirza Adeel Baig, and injuring another person in February 2015.

A counsel for the appellant submitted that he was falsely implicated in the case by police at the behest of the complainant party. He submitted that the identification parade of the appellant was defective and it had been relied upon by the trial court without lawful justification. He requested the high court to acquit the appellant from the charges.

An additional prosecutor general supported the trial court’s judgment and submitted that the court had rightly convicted Asif by relying upon the identification parade.

A single bench of the SHC headed by Justice Irshad Ali Shah after hearing the arguments and perusal of the evidence of the case observed that the name and description of the appellant was disclosed by the complainant neither in the FIR nor in statements by the witnesses.

The high court observed that the appellant was arrested on February 8, 2015, but the identification parade of the appellant was conducted on April 27 with a delay of about 83 days after his formal arrest, which was surprising.

The SHC observed that a forensic report produced by the investigation officer prima facie suggested that the empty shells secured from the place of the incident were found dissimilar to the pistol secured from the appellant who is said to have been acquitted in a case relating to the recovery of an unlicensed weapon. The bench observed that the prosecution had not been able to prove its case against the appellant and his plea of innocence could not be lost sight of.

The SHC allowed the appeal of the appellant and set aside his life imprisonment. The high court ordered his release if not required in other cases.

On Thursday, the SHC had set aside the conviction of a banned militant outfit’s activist in a police man killing case stating that the prosecution had failed to prove charges against him.

Saad Aziz was sentenced to life imprisonment by an anti-terrorism court (ATC) that found him guilty of murdering a policeman deputed in the Rapid Response Force on October 16, 2014. According to the prosecution, the appellant along with absconding co-accused had shot dead policeman Waqar Hashmi near Power House Chowrangi in the New Karachi area when he was returning home.

A counsel for the appellant said Aziz had been falsely implicated in the case as there was no eyewitness to the incident. He submitted that a pistol recovered in another case was foisted on him and this was case of no evidence at all and as such the appellant should be acquitted of the charge by extending him the benefit of the doubt.

An additional prosecutor general submitted that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellant and requested the high court to dismiss his appeal. A division bench of the high court headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha after hearing the arguments and perusal of the evidence observed that there was no last seen evidence of the incident. The SHC observed that the appellant’s confession before the police was inadmissible in evidence as he was not taken to record his confession before a judicial magistrate for which no explanation had been given by the prosecution. The court observed that the appellant was not named in the FIR and it did not appeal to logic or reason that he would confess to a murder which carried a death penalty when at that stage, there was no evidence against him in the murder case that had already been disposed of in the A class when he was only in custody in connection with an illegal arms case.