PESHAWAR, Dec 2: A two-member bench of the Peshawar High Court on Tuesday set aside the death sentence awarded by an anti-terrorism court to a man for killing an army sepoy.

The bench comprising Justice Malik Hamid Saeed and Justice Shahjehan Khan accepted the appeal of the convict, Mudasir Ali Shah, and acquitted him.

It observed that there were lacunas in the prosecution’s case and the evidence provided by the lone witness in the case was doubtful due to contradictions.

The appellant was arrested on Jan 8 on the basis of an FIR registered with the West Cant police station on Jan 3. He was accused of shooting dead a sepoy, Ghulam Nabi, at Nauthia Bazaar after an altercation. The prosecution claimed that he threw the pistol in a drain, which was recovered later. He was convicted by an anti-terrorism court presided over by Akhter Zareef Khan on Sept 2 and sentenced to death with a fine of Rs100,000.

Barrister Zahoorul Haq appeared for the appellant and argued that the evidence given by the lone witness, another armyman, Maqsood, contained contradictions. He contended that during cross-examination the witness admitted that he had not seen the appellant fire at the deceased or throwing away the pistol.

The counsel contended that the witness had claimed he had reported the incident to his official the same evening, but the identification parade took place on Jan 30.