KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Tuesday set aside the life sentence awarded to a man in the murder case of a policeman.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha pointed out many irregularities in the identification parade of the accused conducted by a judicial magistrate as well as during the investigation of the case.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Matiullah to life in prison in June 2015 for killing police constable Masood Khan and wounding assistant sub-inspector Aslam Khattak in Mehmoodabad in May 2010.

The convict had challenged the trial court judgement before the SHC. After hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the bench allowed the appeals and set aside the verdict of the trial court.

The bench in its judgement observed that the case of the prosecution was mainly based on an identification parade conducted by a judicial magistrate in which the wounded policeman identified the appellant and the recovery of a weapon on a lead reportedly provided by the accused.

It added that the incident had taken place in the odd hours of the night and the prosecution had failed to establish the source of light at the place of the incident where the injured policeman had seen the appellant and picked him out during the identification parade.

It further observed that the record was silent about the light at the crime scene and the injured policeman also admitted during cross-examination before the trial court that there was no proper light, adding that it gave room to the possibility of false implication through mistaken identification.

While pointing out irregularities in the identification parade, the court said that as per memo of the identification parade, there was a wound on the cheek of the appellant, but the magistrate made no attempt to hide the wound or all dummies had a similar feature.

If such distinguishable mark was not hidden, it possibly made it a lot easier for witness to identify the accused, the court order said and ruled that the identification parade had lost its value as the memo was also not containing the names, residential addresses and CNIC numbers of the dummies.

About the recovery of the weapon, the court said that it was also inconsequential as neither the FIR nor any witness disclosed the type of weapon used in the crime, adding that the arrest of the appellant was shown on June 26, 2010 while recovery was reportedly made on July 8 and such delay further deceased the credence.

The court further stated that it’s very strange that the empties were sent to Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) after a delay of over 40 days. The prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt and the appellant was entitled to get the benefit of doubt, it concluded.

According to the prosecution, on May 25, 2010 the accused along with their absconding accomplices had gunned down the policeman in the Mehmoodabad area and wounded the ASI and also took away the sub-machine gun of the deceased constable. The accused was arrested in June 2010 in another case and during interrogation he disclosed his involvement in the present case. Ajmal and Irfan were the absconding accused and the trial court had issued life warrants for their arrest.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2019