Law: Penal Code (XLV of 1860)

Section: 302(b),34

Law: Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898

Section: 161

(a) Penal Code (XLV of 1860)--- ----Ss. 302(b) & 34---Qatl-i-amd, common intention---Appreciation of evidence--Non-production of Police Official who took the written complaint to police station for FIR---Consequential---Accused were charged for committing murder of the brother of complainant by firing---Complaint was prepared at hospital and was dispatched to Police Station for registration of formal FIR through Head Constable---Inexorably, in the given circumstances, Head Constable was essentially required to be produced before the Trial Court, but surprisingly, he was neither cited as a witness nor summoned for the recording of evidence--Deposition of the said witness was essentially required to prove the prompt registration of FIR.---Besides that, the defence/accused had a right to crossexamine said witness to extract the truth---Moreover, it would wholly be unjust to blindly accept the claim of prosecution about the time upon which FIR was registered while paying no attention to withholding the most important witness in that regard---According to postmortem report and inquest report, the Investigating Officer mentioned the date and time of incident as 07.02.2018 wherein the deceased died at 05:00 pm.---Dead body of the deceased was identified by two persons at hospital---Perusal of the record further revealed that the occurrence was statedly witnessed by three witnesses but the inquest report did not contain the name of any of those persons, meaning thereby they were not present in the hospital at the time of identification of the dead body---Had the said eye-witnesses been present at hospital, the Investigating Officer would have definitely incorporated their names and associated them to identify the dead body---In such circumstances, the FIR had been lodged with a reasonable delay and that too after concocting a false story---Appeal against conviction was allowed, in circumstances. Minhaj Khan v. The State 2019 SCMR 326 and Muhammad Jahangir and another v. The State and others 2024 SCMR 1741 rel. (b) Penal Code (XLV of 1860)--- ----Ss. 302(b) & 34---Qatl-i-amd, common intention---Appreciation of evidence--Presence of eye-witnesses at the spot not…