ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday disposed of the Nov 4, 2014 case of the lynching of a Christian couple in the Kot Radha Kishan area, but ordered the trial court to complete its proceedings as quickly as possible.

The case was disposed of after Punjab Additional Advocate General Razzaq A. Mirza told a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali that no evidence had been left to be collected by the police.

On a suo motu, the Supreme Court had initiated the hearing into the incident that occurred in Kot Radha Kishan, some 60 kilometres southwest of Lahore, where the Christian couple was burned to death in a kiln over the alleged blasphemy allegation by a mob.

Know more: SC not satisfied with disciplinary action in lynching of couple case

The bench allowed the aggrieved party to approach the Supreme Court again to resurrect the Kot Radha proceedings, if they had complaints with regard to the pace of police investigations or any other complaint.

On Tuesday, a senior prosecutor of Punjab told the court that challans had been submitted to the trial court, but eight witnesses produced before the magistrates to record their evidence under Section 164 of CrPC refused to depose their statement. The witnesses, however, expressed their desire to record their evidence before the trial court during the course of its proceedings.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court directed the trial court to record statements of witnesses as early as possible.

At the same time, the Supreme Court ordered that the investigative officer concerned as well as members of the new Joint Investigation Team (JIT) would leave no stone unturned in apprehending culprits who are still at large.

A report submitted to the court on behalf of Punjab Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhaira, had stated that the provincial police had reconstituted a JIT by entrusting a senior police officer the job of re-investigation into the tragic incident.

Deputy Inspector General of Inspec­tions and Vigilance Akhtar Umer Hayat Lalika is now heading the probe team. Earlier, the probe was being supervised by Kasur Superintendent of Police Investigation.

Published in Dawn March 25th , 2015

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