District judiciary acquits 840 suspects

Sessions, Civil and Magistrate Courts of Rawalpindi District pronounced judgments in 5,697 cases in the first three months of 2024 between January 1 and March 31.

In these cases, 795 accused were convicted, 840 accused were acquitted based on lack of evidence in the preliminary hearing and 300 parties ended the case by agreeing.

Among the punishments doled out, 11 criminals were hanged and seven were sentenced to life imprisonment. Around 3,000 accused were sentenced between two years to ten years in prison. The other accused were sentenced between one to three months in prison or a fine of Rs5,000 to Rs15,000.

During this period, 101 murder cases were decided and 28 of those accused in these cases were punished. There were 74 convictions for manslaughter, of which three accused were convicted. There were 18 verdicts for traffic accidents, but no one was punished in these cases.

There were 600 convictions for robbery and of them, 105 were convicted. Additionally, there were 285 fraud convictions, 210 rulings according to the Hudood ruling and 12 convictions. In the 300 drug cases decided in court, there were 79 convictions.

The performance of police investigation teams in presenting evidence in court cases has been disappointing so far this year. A large number of accused were acquitted due to insufficient evidence, false cases and inconsistencies in the statements of police witnesses.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 27^th, 2024.