KARACHI: The Sindh High Court on Monday overturned the death penalty awarded to a man by a trial court in the murder of a central leader of a religious party and his two associates.

The division bench of the SHC ruled that apparently there was no eyewitness and circumstantial evidence in the triple murder case and the confessional statement of the appellant, recorded in another case also, alone could not be the basis for conviction.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Syed Mehroz Mehdi Zaidi to death in May last year after holding him guilty of killing Mufti Mohammed Usman Yar Khan, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-Sami), his driver Mohammad Rafiq and student Mohammad Ali in a targeted attack on Sharea Faisal in January 2014.

The convict filed an appeal against the capital punishment before the SHC and after hearing both sides the two-judge bench headed by Justice K.K. Agha allowed the appeal and set aside the death penalty.

Order reserved on Siraj Durrani’s bail application

The bench in its judgement observed that the sole eyewitness who sustained injuries in the attack had not been produced by the prosecution before the trial court to record his evidence, adding that the only evidence against the appellant was his confessional statement recorded under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code by a judicial magistrate in another case regarding explosive substance and illicit weapon.

It further said that under the law a confessional statement must be corroborated by other independent evidence as it alone cannot be the basis for conviction while no recovery of crime weapon was made from the appellant.

The order stated that apparently there was no direct as well as circumstantial evidence to link the appellant to the murder, adding that the confession recorded in a case cannot be relied upon or used in another case since each case has its own particular facts and circumstances. The bench concluded that since the prosecution remained unable to prove its case against the appellant beyond a shadow of doubt, the benefit of doubt was extended to him and he was acquitted.

According to the prosecution, the assailants riding two motorbikes intercepted the vehicle of Mufti Usman near a restaurant on Sharea Faisal within the jurisdiction of the Bahadurabad police station, sprayed it with bullets and rode away. Saad, 18, sustained injuries in the attack.

The slain leader with his associates was returning to his seminary located in Gulistan-i-Jauhar’s Block-15 after attending a seminar, it added.

The paramilitary force had arrested the appellant in November 2016 and claimed that the detained suspect was involved in the targeted killing of 27 people on sectarian grounds and belonged to a banned outfit.

Order on Siraj’s bail plea reserved

Another division bench of the SHC on Monday reserved its order on a bail application of detained Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani.

The National Accountability Bureau had arrested the provincial assembly speaker in February in a hotel in Islamabad for investigations, and later it filed a reference against him, his brother Agha Masihuddin Khan and other family members, including his wife, sons and daughters, as well as 13 others before an accountability court in Karachi.

The speaker through his lawyer had moved the SHC for bail while the brother of the applicant and some other suspects also approached the SHC to seek interim pre-arrest bail.

After hearing both sides, the two-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial reserved the order on the bail application.

In May, NAB had filed a reference against Siraj Durrani and others and alleged that he had accumulated assets worth over Rs1.61 billion through illegal means.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2019