LAHORE: Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Asif Saeed Khan Khosa on Friday dismissed an appeal against acquittal of two persons in a murder case with an observation that a concocted story narrated by the complainant in the first information report ultimately helped the suspects.

A trial court had handed down death sentence to Muhammad Ikram and Ghulam Abbas on charges of killing Manzoor and Noor Hassan. However, the Lahore High Court in 2009 allowed the appeals of the convicts and acquitted them of the charge giving them the benefit of the doubt.

Representing the complainant, a counsel argued before a three-judge bench of the SC that the high court ignored facts of the case while acquitting the convicts. He asked the bench to set aside the decision and restore the conviction handed down by the trial court.

However, the chief justice observed that the prosecution failed to produce any direct and cogent evidence against the suspects, adding that it had been a decade since the acquittal of the suspects.

CJP Khosa regretted that complainants usually distorted facts and told police concocted stories about incidents, which eventually favoured the suspects.

“Whenever truth is hidden it favours the offender,” said the chief justice and dismissed the appeal against the acquittal.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah were other members on the bench.

Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2019