PESHAWAR: A local court has acquitted a man charged with killing a police constable in Sarband area here around four years ago.

Additional district and sessions judge Aurangzeb Khan ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge against the accused, Tahir, a resident of Sarband, while the evidence available on record didn’t connect him with the commission of the offence.

The accused was arrested for killing policemen Ahmad Ali, who also lived in his village, on June 7, 2018.

A brother of the deceased had lodged an FIR with the police under sections 302, 324 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, lawyer for the accused, said the complainant had claimed that his brother, Ahmad Ali, was driving a car and he was sitting with him in the back seat, when an altercation took place between him and the accused.

He said the complainant alleged that his client had fired at his brother killing him immediately.

The counsel said the complainant claimed to be a witness to the murder, but in fact he was not present there.

He argued that first it was beyond comprehension why would be the complainant sitting in the back seat of the vehicle along with his brother when the front seat was vacant.

The lawyer contended that the hospital record also showed that the complainant had not taken there rather some other relatives of the deceased were in the hospital.

He added that if the complainant was a witness, he would have taken his brother to the hospital and not by others.

The counsel argued that his client had faced trial for over three years during which the prosecution failed to prove that its version of the occurrence was correct.

He added that the statements of the prosecution witnesses were in conflict with each other as well as with the medical evidence.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2022