PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench has acquitted four persons among them husband of a woman, who had allegedly fallen prey to honour-related murder, and set aside their conviction by a trial court in Swat.

The bench comprising Justice Ibrahim Khan and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim accepted an appeal filed by the four convicts and ruled that the prosecution could not prove its case against the appellants.

The appellants named Eelum Khan, Noor Mohammad, Zoor Mohammad and Usman Dad were convicted by an Izafi Zila Qazi (additional district and sessions judge) in Swat for the murder of Ms Shabana, wife of Noor Mohammad.

The trial court had sentenced Eelum Khan to life imprisonment with Rs100,000 fine whereas the other three accused were sentenced to 26 months rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs100,000 each. The deceased woman’s mother was also charged in the case, but she was acquitted by the trial court.

The appellants’ counsel, Shah Faisal Ilyas, contended that initially the woman’s husband had lodged a complaint with Ghalegai police station in Swat, claiming that his uncle Eelam Khan was cleaning his gun when it was fired accidently which resulted in the death of his wife.

Later, he stated that the complainant was also made accused in the case after the medical examination of the deceased as the police claimed that she had received three bullet wounds and not one.

He contended that the prosecution had claimed that it was an honour-related murder in which the entire family members were involved. He added that the prosecution claimed that the family members were doubtful about character of the deceased.

The counsel argued that the prosecution could not prove the motive of the offence as they had not established that the deceased had called other persons from her phone.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2017