PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has upheld sentence of death awarded to a convict by a trial court for killing his five-year-old daughter over suspicion of her legitimacy.

A bench consisting of Justice Sahibzada Asadullah and Justice Aurangzeb rejected an appeal filed by the convict, Obaidullah. The bench ruled that motive for the murder was fully proved, not only from the circumstances of the case but also from the confessional statement of the appellant.

“Medical evidence is in harmony with confessional statement of the appellant, as the appellant admitted to have cut the throat of the deceased and so the doctor confirmed. The recovery of dagger and its identity by the shopkeeper from whose shop the same was purchased is another factor which has granted support to the case of the prosecution,” the bench ruled in its 25-page detailed judgement.

The bench observed: “When medical evidence is in harmony with ocular account and when circumstantial evidence is consistent, then no option is left with this court to favour the appellant, that too, at the cost of prosecution.”

Convict suspected deceased girl’s ‘legitimacy’

The FIR of the occurrence was registered on July 12, 2022, at Parang police station in Charsadda. The occurrence had also resulted into a public outcry over social media.

Initially, the appellant, who was present with the body of the deceased child named Maryam at a hospital, told police that she had gone missing a day earlier after going out of her residence for playing. He had told police that later he found her body at a deserted place with her throat slit with a dagger.

Subsequently, his wife Gul Meena charged the appellant while recording her statement with a magistrate stating that the deceased had left home in company of the appellant and had not returned.

The appellant was convicted on Jan 6, 2024, by an additional sessions judge in Charsadda and was sentenced to death with fine of Rs500,000, which should be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased child as compensation.

Advocate Arbab Sheraz Khan appeared for complainant Gul Meena and contended that prosecution had fully proved its case against the appellant and the trial court had rightly convicted and sentenced him to death. He stated that the appellant had recorded his confessional statement wherein he had admitted his guilt.

The bench in its judgement observed that the appellant after his arrest had led the police party to the place of occurrence and on his pinpointing a dagger used in the offence was recovered from a field. It was observed that the investigation officer also recorded the statement of the person from whose shop the dagger was purchased.

Police had also recovered a pistol with a stuck bullet about which the appellant claimed that he intended to commit suicide after killing the child.

“The confessional statement is self-explanatory, where the appellant explained that how the deceased was brought to the spot, how was she killed and how her body was brought to hospital.

He explained what prompted him to kill the deceased and he also confirmed that right from the day of his marriage, he was suspecting his wife having illicit relationship in the area,” the bench observed.

Published in Dawn, June 30th, 2025