Mst. KHADEJA vs State Ss — 2024 PCrLJ 405 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

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

Mst. KHADEJA VS State Ss. 302(b), 364, 201 & 34---Qatl-i-amd, kidnapping or abducting in order to murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence, common intention--- Appreciation of evidence---Sentence, reduction in---Delay of three months in lodging the FIR---Effect---Accused was charged that she along with her co-accused committed murder of the brother of complainant after kidnapping him---Record showed that the FIR was lodged after a delay of around three months---In cases where a person went missing it was not uncommon for the FIR to be lodged belatedly as the priority of the relatives was to find the missing person and less importance was placed on lodging the FIR especially when the missing person was an adult as in that case with only the bare allegation that he had gone missing and no one was named to be responsible for his abduction---Generally, delay in lodging FIR was often fatal to the prosecution case because it gave time for the complainant to cook up a false case against the accused often in collusion with the police, however, based on the particular facts and circumstances of that case such delay was not relevant keeping in view the fact that the deceased's dead body was exhumed in front of the house in which he and the accused were living which could not possibly have been planted there by the complainant party in order to fix the accused in a false case without the accused knowing about such burial as she was living in the house from the time the deceased went missing until his body was exhumed---Based on the particular facts and circumstances of the case the delay in lodging the FIR was not fatal to the prosecution's case---Circumstances established that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt, however, the sentence was reduced from death to life imprisonment---Appeal was dismissed with said modification in sentence.

Mst. KHADEJA vs State Ss — 2024 PCrLJ 405 KARACHI-HIGH-COURT-SINDH

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2024 PCRLJ