The Supreme Court on Wednesday acquitted a man convicted for burning his wife alive, overturning the life sentence handed to him by a high court.
“Registration of first information report (FIR) after eight days of the incident has raised several questions,” Chief Justice Asif Saeed Khosa observed while heading a three-member bench of the top court hearing the appeal. He noted that the medical report of the deceased woman had stated that the incident took place owing to a gas cylinder blast, adding that the report contradicted the fabricated story presented by prosecution regarding the incident. “May be the in-laws of the accused changed their mind later and decided to register FIR against Muhammad Imran [the accused] after eight days in order to get some financial benefits,” he observed.
The order read that the prosecution has failed to prove its charges against the accused during the trial and hence he is acquitted by giving benefit of doubt.
The accused, a resident of Faisalabad, was awarded death penalty by a trial court in 2012. However, the high court had converted the death sentence into life imprisonment. Imran had challenged the verdict in the apex court.
The top court also acquitted two convicts accused of murdering two brothers in Karachi by giving them benefit of doubt.
A three-judge bench, headed by the CJP, announced the judgment on appeal of the accused, Muhammad Awais and Shabir Ahmed, who had challenged the high court’s verdict.