KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld the life imprisonment handed down to a policeman by the trial court for killing his colleague.

A sessions court had sentenced constable Manzoor Ali to life in prison in February last year for killing his namesake policeman and wounding a passer-by in Korangi in June 2019.

The convict, through his counsel, had challenged the trial court verdict before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, a single-judge bench headed by Justice Omar Sial dismissed the appeal.

The bench in its judgement said that two eyewitnesses had deposed against the appellant, as per ballistic report empties collected from crime scene had been fired from his official weapon and medical evidence also supported the case of prosecution.

It further observed that both the witnesses, who were also policemen, have explained very well how they were present at the scene and it was not a case of misidentification as all the policemen were from the same district and had all come together for the purpose of training while no malafide was attributed to eyewitnesses.

The bench further said that the appellant in statement before the trial court did not offer any explanation as to why his own colleagues would falsely implicate him and adding that it found the testimonies of both eye witnesses to be trustworthy and confidence inspiring and find no reason to disbelieve either one of them.

“After a re-appraisal of the evidence, I find no reason to interfere with the judgment of the learned trial court. The appeal stands dismissed”, it added.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2023