PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has rejected bail plea of an accused charged with honour-related murder of his wife in district Dir Lower over two months ago.

A single-member bench consisting of Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal ruled that reasonable grounds existed, which tentatively connected the accused, Gul Wazir, with the commission of the offence and thus he was not entitled to the concession of bail.

The deceased woman, Sazmeena, had taken refuge in a women shelter home few months ago as she apprehended that she would be killed by her husband. However, on the order of an additional assistant commissioner, she was allowed to go with her brother and sister in August 2022.

Subsequently, on September 2, 2022, her family members allowed her husband to take her along with him after he gave assurance that she won’t be harmed.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Mayar police station on September 3, 2022. The complainant in the FIR was a brother of the deceased woman, Lal Munir.

The bench observed that the accused was directly charged in the FIR for the commission of the offence. It was observed that the accused had also pinpointed to police the place of occurrence as well as the weapon used by him for allegedly killing the deceased woman.

The bench observed that a statement of the deceased woman recorded on July 18, 2022, was also available wherein she had clearly attributed threat to her life from the accused.

It was observed that being husband of the deceased, he was responsible and even accountable for the life and safety of his wife and he should have been given the firsthand information as to who had killed his wife.

Earlier, an additional district and sessions judge, Mian Zahidullah Jan, had also rejected bail plea of the accused on September 24. The court had also pointed out certain anomalies in the proceedings carried out by police and the executive magistrate/AAC.

The court had observed that the deceased was under constant threat to her life and had feared her apprehensions in a daily diary on July 18, 2022.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2022