KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside the life imprisonment of two men in a kidnapping and rape case.

A sessions court had sentenced Khuda Bux and Abdul Khaliq to life in prison in February 2020 for abducting a 16-year-old girl in a Malir locality in July 2018.

The trial court had also sentenced Khuda Bux to 10-year term for raping the captive.

The convicts, through their lawyers, filed an appeal against their conviction before the SHC and after hearing arguments and examining the record and proceedings, a single-judge bench headed by Justice Irshad Ali Shah allowed the appeals and exonerated both the appellants.

The bench in its order observed that the FIR was lodged with a delay of one day and no plausible explanation was offered in this regard. None has been examined by the police to prove the abduction of the victim from the place of incident, which as per investigating officer was busy spot, it noted.

It further said, “As per the documents produced by the female MLO, who had examined the victim, no rape has been committed with the victim in the present case as another case of rape of victim was lodged at Bahawalpur district.”

“In that context, it is contended by counsel for the appellants that the complainant party was in habit to lodge false FIRs against innocent persons to extort money from them while no DNA report was produced,” the bench added.

It said that the investigating officer had admitted that call data record (CDR) report did not prove the presence of the appellants at the place of incident and the basis of same evidence the third accused was acquitted by the trial court.

“In these circumstances, it would be safe to conclude that the prosecution has not been able to prove its case against the appellants too beyond shadow of doubt and to such benefit they are also found entitled,” the court ruled.

According to the prosecution, the girl left her house for tuition centre, but did not return and her father lodged a case at Malir City police station. Later, she was recovered and appellant Khuda Bux was taken into custody and victim said that the accused persons had abducted her and one of them had raped her, it added.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2022