KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside the life imprisonment handed down to two appellants by the trial court in a policeman murder case.

A two-judge bench headed by Justice K. K. Agha allowed the appeals and acquitted the appellants by extending them the benefit of doubt.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Mohammad Shoaib alias Shahoo and Fahad Bin Shakeel alias Bandoo to life in prison in April this year for killing Constable Aftab Shah in Malir in 2011.

The convicts through their lawyers challenged the trial court order and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings the appellate bench allowed the appeals.

The bench in its order observed that the prosecution could not establish its case beyond a shadow of a doubt as the evidence of an eyewitness seemed to be not trustworthy.

It further said that the eyewitness could only pick out one appellant during an identification parade conducted by a judicial magistrate in 2017 and deposed that he was present at the crime place when the incident had taken placed, but failed to assign any role in the commissioning of the offence and thus the bench could not safely rely on it.

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2021