KARACHI: A sessions court converted on Wednesday the charge of premeditated murder into unintentional murder in a case pertaining to the killing of a young man.

Raham Noor, a soldier of the Pakistan Rangers, Sindh, was booked with the widow of the deceased, Shafia, for their alleged involvement in the murder of 30-year-old Zeeshanuddin, who was allegedly gunned down by the paramilitary soldier near Nagan Chowrangi in New Karachi on Feb 28, when the man was reportedly scuffling with his estranged wife.

After evaluating the FIR, testimonies of witnesses and other evidence available on record, district and sessions judge (central) Javed Ahmed Keerio overruled an order of a judicial magistrate and observed that Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) was not applicable to the present case and added that it was an offence under Section 319 (punishment for unintentional murder) of the PPC.

The court adjourned the hearing till Aug 8 for indictment of the suspects and also extended their pre-arrest bail till the next hearing.

It is worth noting that the police had booked the suspects for unintentional murder and also charge-sheeted them for the same offence.

However, a judicial magistrate had converted the unintentional murder case into premeditated murder in April and observed that specific motive, statements of witnesses recorded under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code and other sufficient material were available to establish the premeditated murder offence and held the investigating officer accountable for not conducting the investigation as per required criteria of law.

The suspects moved the Sindh High Court against the order of the judicial magistrate and the SHC asked the trial court to appraise the evidence available on record and decide the applicable section before the indictment.

On the directive of a sessions court, the New Karachi police booked the soldier and the widow in the second FIR on the complaint of a sister of the deceased under unintentional murder offence.

The first FIR was registered on the complaint of the deceased’s widow against the paramilitary soldier for unintentional murder.

Illicit weapon case

A court sentenced on Wednesday a convict to seven years in prison in an illicit weapon case.

Mubarak was found guilty of carrying an unlicensed pistol at the time of his arrest within the jurisdiction of the Sharea Faisal police station last year.

The assistant additional district and sessions judge (east), Sarwat Sultana, also imposed a fine of Rs30,000 and in case of a default the convict would undergo an additional one-month imprisonment. He was booked under Section 23 (1) (a) of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013.

The accused was on bail and following the pronouncement of the judgement he was taken into custody and sent to prison along with a conviction warrant to serve out the sentence.

Clifton police station raided

On the directive of a sessions court, a bailiff raided on Wednesday the Clifton police station and recovered a man detained there illegally.

The bailiff said that Asim Ali was found in the lock-up and an entry was made in daily-diary under Section 54 (when police may arrest without warrant) of the CrPC about his detention.

However, the detainee was released on a personal bond since he was picked up on Tuesday and the police were bound to either release him or produce before a court within 24 hours, he added.

The bailiff director the SHO, the duty officer as well as the applicant party to appear before a sessions court on Thursday. The mother of the detainee moved the court for recovery of her son.

Published in Dawn, July 24th , 2014