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Petition for Special Leave to appeal No. 414 of 1976, decided on 21st February, 1977.
(On appeal from the judgment and order of the Lahore High Court, Lahore, dated 28-9-1976 in Criminal Appeal. No. 645. of 1975/Murder Reference No. 211 of 1975).
S. 302/34 - [Murder-case]-Appreciation of evidence-One of prosecution witnesses utterly independent-Account given by all three prosecution witnesses corroborated by recovery of pistol from first petitioner and such weapon matching with bullet extracted from deceased-Account also corroborated by recovery of chhurri stained with human blood from second petitioner-Motive for offence also proved--Medical evidence further corroborating prosecution version Courts below after appraisal of evidence having felt convinced of account given by prosecution witnesses to be trustworthy in so far as corroborated by recoveries and on such premises giving benefit of doubt to another accused allegedly armed with chhuri but not leading to its recovery, no proper grounds, held, made out to question findings reached by trial Judge and affirmed by High Court.-[Evidence]
Qazi Shafi Muhammad, Advocate and Sh. Masud Akhtar, Advocate-on-Record for petitioners.
Nemo for the State.
Date of hearing : 21st February, 1977.
Muhammad Shard alias Billa and Muhammad Sharif alias Channa, petitioners stood convicted under section 302 read with section 34, P. P. C. for committing the murder of one Muhammad Sharif alias Pahara, and sentenced to death.
The occurrence was witnessed by Salahuddin, Shah Muhammad and Sakhawat, P. Ws. The first two are related to the deceased but Sakhawat Hussain has been found to be utterly independent. The account given by them was corroborated by the recovery of Pistol (P/1) from petitioner No. 1 which matched the bullet extracted from the deceased at the time of post-mortem examination by the doctor; and the recovery of Chhuri (P/7) stained with human blood from petitioner No. 2. There was evidence also of motive, namely, the killing of Maula Bakhsh, uncle of the petitioners by Wali Muhammad, brother of the deceased. The medical evidence further corroborated the prosecution version. Out of the 19 injuries suffered by the deceased, 3 were caused by pistol shots and 16 by a sharp-edged weapon.
The petitioners pleaded not guilty and denied the incriminating recoveries, but led no evidence in defence.
The Courts below have appraised the evidence on the record and felt convinced that the account given by the three eye-witnesses was trustworthy, in so far as it has been corroborated .by the recoveries. On this premise Jehengir accused who too was armed with a chhuri and had caused injuries to the deceased with it, but had not led to the, recovery of the chhuri was given the benefit of doubt and acquitted.
On hearing the learned counsel for the petitioner we see no proper grounds to question the findings reached by the trial Judge and affirmed by the two learned Judges of the High Court. The occurrence took place in a busy street of Lahore during day time.
The number of injuries on the person of the deceased indicates that the assault lasted for some time. These two circumstances eliminate the possibility of mistaken identity.
The petition for leave to appeal is dismissed.
Petition dismissed.
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