KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside the conviction of three men handed down by the trial court in a case pertaining to kidnapping for ransom and murder of a nine-year-old boy.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio observed that the investigating officer had miserably failed to investigate the case properly as he did not involve all possible parties including owners of the cell phones used to make a call to demand ransom and did not make any effort to collect DNA samples of the appellants despite the fact that the victim was also criminally assaulted.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Allah Ditta, Mohammad Irfan and Abdul Hafeez for life in prison and other multiple jail terms in December 2019 for abducting the boy, demanding a ransom, criminally assaulting the captive and killing him in September 2017 in Qaimkhani Colony, Ittehad Town.

The convicts challenged the trial court order before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record & proceedings the division bench allowed the appeals and overturned the conviction.

Court rules prosecution did not prove its case, provide witnesses

The bench in its judgement ruled that the incident was “un-witnessed” and the prosecution was required to prove it through circumstantial evidence by establishing an unbroken chain of events.

However, it noted that unfortunately, it failed to do so and an innocent child’s death went in vain and deplored the IO for not probing it properly.

The bench further remarked that the conviction order of the trial court was based on evidence without adjudging its probative value and on gruesome nature of the offence.

“Without doubt, the offence committed was gruesome where a nine-year-old innocent soul lost its life at the hands of ill-minded assailants, but this ruthless murder could not set the scales of justice against the appellants by prejudging them as the culprits,” the verdict said.

According to the prosecution, the child was kidnapped on Sept 20, near his house in Qaimkhani Colony and five days later, the father of the captive / complainant received a phone call and the caller demanded Rs1.5 million for the release of the child.

The kidnappers sent a memory card to him containing pictures and audio recording of the victim and Oct 10, the complainant had paid Rs130,000 to the abductors through mobicash on two mobile numbers, but they refused to release the victim.

Later, the body of the child was recovered from a drain, it added.

The prospection further said that the accused persons were arrested in another case and during questioning disclosed their involvement in the present case and led the police to the places of kidnapping and murder.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2022