FAISALABAD, July 11: Judicial Magistrate Chaudhry Mohammad Iqbal Chadhar here on Thursday rejected the bail applications of all accused, including Imam of a mosque, involved in the stoning to death case of Chak Jhumra.
The judge observed in his order that since in the case a man had been killed, it was beyond the jurisdiction of the court to grant the bail.
He observed that although the police had booked the accused under Section 322 of Pakistan Penal Code, in his opinion a sessions court could decide the bail applications and other issues related to the case.
The application was moved by the accused: Amir Maqsood, Amjad Sadiq, Amir Shahzad, Kashif Ali, Imran Akram, Atif Jawed, Nadeem Qaisar, Mohammad Habib, Mohammad Ikhlaq, Faisal Saleem, Ghulam Ghaus, Sanaullah, Shahbaz, Mohammad Amir, Abdullah, Sohail Maqsood, Waris Ali, Mohammad Akram, Iqbal, Mushtaq Ahmed, Altaf Hussain, Abdul Khaliq, Falk Sher, Shah Nawaz, Saifullah, Rashid Iqbal, Mohammad Jameel, Naseer Ahmed, Imtiaz Mehmood, and Pesh Imam Faqir Ahmed, through their counsels — Chaudhry Talib Hussain Chattha and Mian Farooq Israr advocates.
They said it was not a case of evidence neither any punishment was provided in Section 322 PPC.
They said that the complainant, Mohammed Naeem, brother of deceased Zahid, in his earlier statement had admitted that he was not present at the place of incident. In his statement before the police, he had also refused to initiate proceedings against the persons involved in the incident because he was told by the villagers that his brother had allegedly committed blasphemy, they said.
According to the counsels of the accused, the complainant had not mentioned the names of any accused in his statement and they were subsequently arrested by the police by fabrication of the statements of various persons.
The counsels also produced before the court the affidavits of the village’s Nambardar, Khalil Ahmed, and one Faiz Rasool, stating that they had not recorded any statement before the police testifying the involvement of the arrested accused. They claimed that they were falsely shown as witnesses by the police.
Similarly, two other witnesses, Maqbool and Tasneem, also refuted the claim of police that they had witnessed Imtiaz stabbing Zahid.
The counsels pointed out that in the FIR the police had claimed that the incident occurred at night and the mob comprised 1,100 to 1,200 villagers but they blamed the 30 accused for killing Zahid.
The prosecution lawyers argued that the bail application should be rejected as the accused had committed a heinous crime by stoning a man to death, which had defamed the country.
The court was packed with villagers and relatives of the accused.
The 30 accused, including the Pesh Imam, Faqir Ahmed, were arrested by the Chak Jhumra police on Saturday on charge of stoning to death Zahid, son of Shah Mohammad, in Chak No.103 JB (Barnala) of Chak Jhumra.
