Asif alias Asad vs State Ss — 2024 MLD 1672 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

Asif alias Asad VS State Ss. 302(b), 109, 148 & 149---Qatl-i-amd, abetment, rioting armed with deadly weapon, unlawful assembly---Appreciation of evidence---Co-accused acquitted on same set of evidence---Accused were charged for committing murder of the brother of the complainant by firing---Record showed that as per own case of prosecution, seven co-accused persons had been given one and the same/identical role of making ineffective firing, however, one of the co-accused had already been acquitted and his acquittal had neither been challenged by the State nor by the complainant---If same/identical role has been alleged against more than one accused and anyone out of them has been acquitted, then in absence of the strong corroboration, other accused persons against whom also similar allegation is levelled by the prosecution, cannot be convicted and sentenced---Circumstances established that prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused persons beyond shadow of reasonable doubt---Appeal against conviction was allowed, in circumstances. Citation Name: 2024 MLD 1672 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE Asif alias Asad VS State Ss. 302(b), 109, 148 & 149---Qatl-i-amd, abetment, rioting armed with deadly weapon, unlawful assembly---Appreciation of evidence---Benefit of doubt---Accused were charged for committing murder of the brother of the complainant by firing---Motive behind the occurrence was stated to be a land dispute---As per own case of prosecution, co-accused fired shot and caused single/fatal firearm injury to deceased, however, present accused persons neither caused any injury to the deceased or anybody else in the case nor even attempted to do so rather allegation of ineffective firing had been alleged against them---Hence, conviction of the accused persons under S.148, P.P.C, was questionable, therefore, strong and independent corroboration was required to uphold the conviction and sentence awarded to the present accused---Though prosecution emphasized that corroboration was available in the form of recoveries effected from three accused persons, however, the Kalashnikov recovered from one accused and other Kalashnikov recovered from other accused were sent to Forensic Science Agency and as per report of said agency, both said weapons were though in working condition yet empties secured from the place of occurrence and sent to Forensic Science Agency for comparison did not match with said weapons---Report of Forensic Science Agency regarding mere working capability of said weapons could not provide any corroboration to the case of prosecution against both the accused persons---Circumstances established that prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused persons beyond shadow of reasonable doubt---Appeal against conviction was allowed, in circumstances. Citation Name: 2024 MLD 1672 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE Asif alias Asad VS State Ss. 302(b), 109, 148 & 149---Qatl-i-amd, abetment, rioting armed with deadly weapon, unlawful assembly---Appreciation of evidence---Recovery of weapon of offence from the accused---Inconsequential---Accused were charged for committing murder of the brother of the complainant by firing---As per application for registration of case and FIR, accused "I" was armed with .8mm rifle which he allegedly used in the occurrence and same was the position/stance in the statements of complainant and eye-witness recorded during trial of the case, however, .8mm rifle was not recovered from him rather as per case of prosecution, 12-bore shotgun was recovered from him---So, at maximum, it could be said that firearm weapon .12-bore shotgun was recovered from "I" but since use of .12-bore shotgun was not claimed in the application moved for registration of the case and in the FIR as well as in the statements of complainant and eye-witness recorded during trial of the case, therefore, recovery of said gun was of no avail to the prosecution for the purpose of providing corroboration---Though according to the report of Forensic Science Agency, two out of four empties of .12-bore shotgun cartridge cases sent to Forensic Science Agency had matched with the aforesaid shotgun yet it was own case of prosecution that "I" was arrested in the case on 21.07.2011---Hence, when empties were sent to FSL after arrest of accused "I", then report of said agency regarding matching of empties with allegedly recovered shotgun from "I" was inconsequential---Such recovery could not provide any corroboration to the case of prosecution against said accused---Undeniably, no weapon of offence was recovered from other two accused persons---In such scenario, it could be safely concluded that when neither common object nor motive could be established by the prosecution against the present accused persons and even recovery of the weapons from accused persons was inconsequential, then nothing was available on record to provide any corroboration to the case of prosecution against the present accused persons---Circumstances established that prosecution had failed to prove its case against the accused persons beyond shadow of reasonable doubt---Appeal against conviction was allowed, in circumstances.

Asif alias Asad vs State Ss — 2024 MLD 1672 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2024 MLD