PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday set aside the conviction and life sentence of two people in a kidnapping case by an anti-terrorism court.

Justice Syed Afsar Shah and Justice Younas Taheem observed that the prosecution failed to prove the charge against Rambail and Syed Jamal as there were contradictions in the prosecution’s case.

The prosecution had claimed that a resident of the Pakistan Overseas Foundation Colony, Mohammad Umar, was kidnapped on July 13, 2013, and the kidnappers demanded a ransom of Rs5 million for his release.

It added that the son of the abductee was complainant in the case and he had received phone calls of the kidnappers regarding the payment of ransom.

The prosecution claimed that the local police had raided a house in the jurisdiction of the Khazana police station and had recovered the kidnapped persons and arrested the two appellants present there.

It alleged that the police had also recovered a Kalashnikov and a pistol from the possession of the two.

Shabir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the appellants, said the prosecution’s case was full of lacunas.

He said while the police claimed that the appellants had made phone calls to the son of the kidnapped person, the police had not placed on record the calls data records to prove that calls were made by the appellants.

The lawyer said the relevant case’s documents didn’t prove that the appellants and kidnapped person were traced at the same residence.

He added that the trial court had overlooked several important points while convicting the two appellants.

Mr Gigyani said the charge sheet related to the recovery of weapons from the appellants was submitted to the court of a judicial magistrate, which had acquitted them.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2017