LHC acquits man sentenced in 2021

The Lahore High Court (LHC) has acquitted a man sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, ruling that the prosecution failed to satisfactorily explain a delay in registering the FIR and establish the presence of witnesses at the crime scene.

Justice Farooq Haider allowed an appeal filed by Muhammad Ashraf against his conviction, setting aside his life sentence and a fine of Rs500,000 imposed by the trial court in 2021.

Ashraf had been accused of shooting dead Sikandar Firdous. Mandi Bahauddin police had registered the murder case against him in 2019.

In its written judgment, the court noted that the prosecution had failed to provide a convincing explanation for the delay in registering the FIR.

The court observed that the post-mortem examination had been conducted late and the police had prepared relevant documents after a delay.

According to the complainant, she was travelling on a motorcycle with her son to visit her daughter when Ashraf signalled them to stop outside his house. After they stopped, the accused allegedly took her son inside the house and shot him dead.

The court observed that the complainant's account raised questions about the circumstances of the incident, as her daughter's home was situated before the accused's house along the route in the village.

Finding weaknesses in the prosecution's case, the high court set aside the conviction and sentence.