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Criminal Miscellaneous No. 37-B of 1983, decided on 19th January, 1983.

---S. 497--Penal Code (XLV of 1860), S.302--Opinion of Medical Officer wholly inconsistent with details of incident as given in F.I.R.--Case against petitioners, held, one of further inquiry in circumstances- Petitioners released on bail.

Syed Ehtesham Qadir Shah for the Petitioners.

Aziz Qureshi for the State.

Date of hearing: 19th January, 1983.

Petitioners six in number are accused of offence under section 302/148/149, P.P.C. for drowning Allah Bakhsh alias Bakhsha in River Chenab near village Uddian, P.S. Mid Ranjha, Tehsil Bhalwal, District Sargodha as per F.I.R. No. 141, dated 25-7-1982. On the same day viz. 25-7-1982 F.I.R. was lodged. It is stated therein that the accused persons in order to take revenge for the murder of Dosa father of Walayat one of the petitioners had taken Allah Bakhsh and put a rope around his neck and pulling him therewith asked him to walk towards the river and on his refusal to move had held him by his arms and legs and had forcibly taken to the river and drowned him within the view of Nazir complainant. The complainant and another person took his dead body out of the river and put it on a cot.

2. The learned counsel for the petitioners prays for the grant of bail on the ground that according to medico-legal report dated 26-7-1982 no mark of violance, no laceration or abrasion and no sign of struggle were available on his body. He further draws my attention to the circumstance mentioned by the Medical Officer in his opinion to the effect that the dead body remained. immersed in water for about 12 to 24 hours and was out of water in the air for approximately 24 hours and that this data was taken from police but it was in accordance with the medico-legal knowledge. According to the learned counsel for the petitioners the deceased got drowned accidentally and petitioners had been implicated falsely in order to put pressure on them to come to a compromise in the pending murder case of Dosa in which their relatives stand implicated.

3. I have considered the arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioners and have also heard the learned counsel for the State. In the F.I.R. it has been stated that immediately after drowning the deceased had been taken out and put on the cot while medico-legal report shows that it remained in water from 12 to 24 hours. The opinion of the medical officer is wholly inconsistent with the details of the incident as given in the F.I.R. I am, therefore, inclined to think that the case of the petitioners is of further inquiry. I, therefore, grant bail to the petitioners in the sum of Rs. 50,000 with two surties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of trial Court.

S. G. D. Bail granted.

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