PESHAWAR, Sept 20: The Peshawar High Court on Thursday set aside the capital punishment awarded to three persons by a trial court in a triple murder case.

A bench, comprising Justice Ijaz Afzal Khan and Justice Dost Mohammad Khan, observed that the prosecution had failed to prove its case and said the conflicting evidence put on record went in favour of the accused.

The bench accepted the appeals filed by the accused, Shahid Shehzad, Adil Shehzad and Sohail Ahmad.

The prosecution had charged them with the killing of three men, Samir Zia, his friend Imran and watchman Jhangrez in Gulbahar Colony on July 24, 2003. The accused are said to be friends of the deceased and were convicted by Additional District and Sessions Judge Shehbar Khan on April 21, 2005.

The prosecution claimed that the accused had murdered the three men and took away foreign currency and jewellery possessed by them.

Barrister Zahoorul Haq, advocates Khwaja Mohammad Khan Gara and Ishtiaq Ibraheem appeared on behalf of the accused and pointed out flaws in the case.

Barrister Zahoor contended that the prosecution case was based mostly on confessional statements of the three appellants, which he alleged had been acquired after applying the third degree methods.

Mr Haq claimed that one of the appellants Shahid Shehzad was arrested on July 27, 2003, and was kept in illegal detention for more than a month before police showed his arrest on Sept 3, 2003.

He referred to the evidence of a prosecution witness Ameer Khan and said the witness had clearly stated before the court that he was tortured and directed by police to give a statement against the accused.

Mr Haq said Mr Khan had said that police brought his wife to the police station and forced him to give a statement in accordance with their directives.

He said Mr Khan had also stated that while he was in the ‘illegal’ custody of police, he had seen the accused Mr Shahid in their custody, which was many days before the date shown by the police on record for his arrest.