PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has acquitted two officials of the excise department on the charge of smuggling narcotics.
It also pointed out discrepancies in the statements of prosecution witnesses, including the complainant, and voiced concern about the “conflicting evidence recorded” by the police witnesses against the accused.
A bench consisting of Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim and Justice Sahibzada Asadullah accepted the appeal jointly filed by inspector Faisal Khan and constable Khan Zaib against their conviction in the case by the trial court.
On June 2, 2022, the trial court awarded life imprisonment and Rs500,000 fine each to both the accused.
“The appellants earned acquittal not because they proved their innocence but because they succeeded in getting undue favour from the witnesses, the conscious concessions drifted away the accused from the clutches of the law.
PHC points out discrepancies in statements of prosecution witnesses
“It is the irony of fate that the department which held them responsible, rushed to their rescue, not by using legal means, but by disowning what they once owned. This is unfortunate that officials of the two trusted departments (police and excise) betrayed the confidence of those, who had confidence in them,” the bench declared in a 21-page detailed judgement authored by Justice Sahibzada Asadullah.
It added that it left it to those at the helm of affairs in both departments to decide regarding the misconduct of those who helped appellants get acquitted as well as the appellants, who indulged in an activity that earned a bad name for both the department and the country.
The bench ruled that the case was a test of the moral courage of all, who were occupying the top positions in the respective departments, who were to decide either to rescue the wrongdoers, which, in the court’s understanding, were both the accused and the witnesses, who facilitated them during and after the investigation, or to make an example of them.
“If they are retained on the posts with the same responsibilities, then the expected outcome would be nothing more but a tragedy,” it observed.
The court observed that it was a tragedy that instead of honouring their commitment, some officials holding the most responsible posts turned to be the source of its disgrace and their greed to earn tempted them to join drug dealers with the only hope to make a fortune.
“In our understanding, the appellants have damaged the trust of the department in the eyes of citizens, that too, at the cost of their honour and their respect, they once had. True that the prosecution failed to bring home guilt against the appellants not that the narcotics were not recovered, but because it helped the accused consciously to earn acquittal,” it ruled.
The court added that the way the witnesses cooperated with the accused found no parallel in history and what shocked it to the core was the cooperation between the two sides, not in eradicating evil but in flourishing the same.
Advocate Noor Alam Khan and Barrister Amir Khan Chamkani appeared for the appellants and contended that their clients were innocent and evidence on record did not connect them with the commission of the offence.
The FIR of the offence was registered at Kohat’s Lachi police station on April 7, 2021, under Section 9-D of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Control of Narcotics Substance Act.
The complainant in the case was SHO Jamshaid Ali Khan who claimed that police had laid a barricade and were engaged in inspecting vehicles near Lachi Bridge.
He said when the police stopped the vehicle in question, the two accused, who wore uniform, disembarked from it.
The SHO alleged that the police search led to the recovery of 1,320kg of charas and 30kg of opium from the vehicle.
Published in Dawn, November 15th, 2023