LAHORE: A Lahore High Court division bench on Wednesday acquitted a condemned prisoner for poor prosecution in a murder case against him.

Saddar police of Narowal had registered a first information report (FIR) against the convict, Muhammad Nadeem, in 2015 for killing a man and injuring two others. A trial court had handed down death penalty to him.

The convict filed an appeal in the high court, challenging his conviction.

Convict’s counsel Mian Dawood argued before the bench that the prosecution’s case was full of loopholes but the trial court handed down a guilty verdict without applying judicial mind.

He pointed out that there were major discrepancies in the medical reports of the deceased and the injured persons. He said the statements of the prosecution witnesses were also contradictory to each others.

The counsel argued that the trial court convicted the appellant on the basis of mere assumption, asking the bench to allow the appeal and acquit the appellant.

Opposing the appeal, Prosecutor General of Punjab Arif Kamal Noon argued that the appellant was nominated in the FIR. He said the trial court passed the impugned judgement on merits and in light of the tangible evidence.

Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, who headed the bench, observed that the Supreme Court discouraged conviction in a criminal case if there was no corroborating evidence.

The judge observed that even a single evidence, if proved to be fabricated, was sufficient to make the whole prosecution story doubtful.

The bench allowed the appeal and acquitted the convict.

Published in Dawn, March 10th, 2022