KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has overturned 10-year imprisonment handed down to four policemen by the trial court in an extortion case.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced constables Asif Khan, Muhammad Waseem, Muhammad Kashif and Babar Munir Cheema to 10 years in prison in March this year and also imposed fine for intercepting the vehicle of complainant Hassan Adil and his friend Shazma Khan, forcing them to withdraw money from the ATM and extorting the same from them in November 2020 in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality.

The convicts through their counsel impugned the conviction order before the SHC and after hearing both sides and examining the record and proceedings, a division bench of SHC comprising Justice Naimatullah Phulpoto and Justice Irshad Ali Shah allowed the appeals and exonerated the appellants.

The bench in its judgement observed that on account of his failure to support the case of the prosecution, the complainant was declared hostile while key female witness was not able to identify the appellants at trial.

If their evidence being star witnesses to the incident is taken into consideration, then it supports the plea of the appellants that they are innocent, it added.

The SHC also noted that in absence of forensic report, not much reliance could be placed upon the Close Circuit Television Cameras (CCTV) footage allegedly taken from the place of the incident.

The complainant reported the incident to police after a delay of around four days and no plausible explanation for such delay was offered by him and it could not be overlooked, it maintained.

The bench further said that at one moment the police had recommended the case for cancelation under B-Class (bogus) and the same was also approved by the judicial magistrate concerned, but the order was challenged and reversed by the SHC.

Thereafter, further investigation of the case was conducted and police had furnished a report under Section 173 CrPC before the magistrate, who had returned the same by observing that it was a case of extortion involving terrorism and thus, cognizance whereof was to be taken by the ATC under the Antiterrorism Act, 1997 and consequently, the case was presented before the trial court/ATC, it added.

The SHC stated that no empty bullet casing was secured from the place of incident, which belied the fact that fires were shot at the time of the incident.

The discussion involves a conclusion that the prosecution has not been able to prove its case against the appellants beyond a shadow of doubt and to such benefit they are found entitled, it concluded.

According to the prosecution, the complainant and his friend were on their way to their destination when the policemen, riding on two motorcycles, intercepted their vehicle, threatened and harassed them by making fires in the air.

Thereafter, the appellants had forced them to withdraw Rs50,000 each from their respective bank accounts through ATM and the policemen had taken the money from them by force and then returned Rs10,000 to them for fuel purpose, it maintained.

Published in Dawn, September 16th, 2024