PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court had rejected the bail plea of a man charged with torturing and strangling his newlywed wife over two months ago in Upper Dir district.

However, Justice Mohammad Ijaz Khan of a single-member bench granted bail to the prime accused’s younger brother for being a juvenile person declaring that apparently, he was not connected with the commission of the offence.

The bench observed that the records showed that the ‘unnatural’death of Muheebullah’s wife Saeeda Bibi, who was reported to be missing, had taken place in his room, so he would have to explain the circumstances, which led to the death.

It added that prima facie, the prime accused had not been able to offer any explanation for the death of his wife, so in light of the tentative assessment of the records, he was connected with the commission of the offence.

Orders release of his juvenile brother on bail

FIR of the incident was registered at the Gandigar police station in Upper Dir district on Sept 11, 2022.

The deceased’s father, Jalat Khan, was the complainant in it. He claimed that he rushed to the house of his daughter after learning about her death and found her body to be lying on a cot with the women family members insisting that she had committed suicide.

He, however, said he found marks of torture on the body as well as the sign of strangulation on the neck.

The complainant said his daughter was married to Muheebullah 40-50 days ago. He had accused Muheebullah and his younger brother of killing his daughter.

The police’s investigation officer had also recovered the rope with which the deceased was allegedly strangled.

The main accused had also admitted before the investigation officer that he had killed his wife. However, the motive behind the murder was not clear.

Assistant advocate general Alam Khan Adenzai appeared for the state, whereas lawyer Shaibar Khan represented the complainant.

They contended that the petitioners were directly named in the FIR, so he didn’t deserve to be granted bail.

BAIL GRANTED: The bench also granted bail to a man charged with injuring his wife by torture and firing in the air to intimidate her in Lower Dir district.

It accepted the bail petition of the accused, Fazal Dayan, and directed him to produce two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

The woman, Rani Gul, was the complainant in the FIR, which was registered by the Munda police station in Lower Dir district on Sept 22, 2022.

She alleged that her husband was a drug addict and was in the habit of selling household items to buy drugs.

The complainant claimed that when she stopped her husband from that practice, he got infuriated and beat her up with a stick causing forehead injury.

She claimed that the accused also began firing in the air with a Kalashnikov rifle and threatened to kill her.

The woman insisted that she suffered a miscarriage a few days later.

The bench observed that the trial court would determine after recording evidence whether the miscarriage was caused by the alleged torture or not.

It added that the offence with which the petitioner was charged did not fall in the prohibitory provision of Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2022