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Criminal Miscellaneous No. 382/Q of 1974, decided on 11th November 1974.
----S. 561‑A‑‑Quashment of proceedings‑Delay‑Neither any prosecution witness examined within 5 years nor any chance of recovery of alleged embezzled amount‑Delay in trial whether deliberate or accidental ‑---- Suspense of criminal case ----‑ Causes a great mental agony and sort of punishment without trial and conviction‑Proceedings quashed in circumstance.
Raja Muhammad Akhtar for Petitioner.
Ch. Muhammad Saeed Ahmad for A.‑G. for the State.
Date of hearing : 5th November 1974.
This order shall dispose of three criminal miscellaneous petitions filed by S. M. Siddique petitioner against the State bearing Nos. 382/Q, 576/Q and 577/Q of 1974. Through these three petitions the petitioner seeks quashment of three criminal cases pending against him which have arisen out of a complaint alleging that he embezzled and misappropriated huge sums of money by forging the records of a certain branch of the Habib Bank.
2. The cases were initiated in the year 1969 and not a single prosecu tion witness has so far been examined although the challans have long since been put in Court,
The learned counsel appearing for the State submits that the police bas promised now to produce all the witnesses in Court within a month.
3. From this undertaking it appears that the trial could have beet begun any time the police wanted and finished within a month of its com mencement. But for reasons best known to the prosecution this has not so far been done and the sword of domaceles has been hanging over the petitioner for the last five years. It goes without daying that the suspense of a criminal case causes a great mental agony to the accused. Whether the delay in the trial was deliberate or accidental, the petitioner has all the same suffered .the agony for five years. This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue any further.
It is admitted that there is no chance of the recovery of the alleged embezzled amount. The criminal proceedings, therefore, cannot make good the loss suffered by the Bank and the petitioner has already undergone punishment of a sort without being tried and convicted.
4. I, therefore, allow all the three petitions‑and quash the; proceedings in all the three cases.
Petitions accepted.
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