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Criminal Miscellaneous No. 1161/B of 1981; decided on 20th December 1981.

--- S. 497-Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance (VII of 1979), S. 6/10/11--Bail, grant of-Petitioner, accused of abduction and rape, declared by prosecution witnesses in unequivocal terms not among abductors -Abductee, a major girl and at one stage admitting to be legally-wedded wife of main accused-Case of petitioner, held, one of further inquiry, in circumstances-Bail allowed.

Taj Muhammad Khan Langah for Petitioner.

Syed Murtaza All Zaidi for the State.

This is a petition for bail after arrest on behalf of Muhammad Riaz petitioner, against whom a case under section 6/10/11 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance VII of 1979, stands registered at Police Station Burj Wala, District Sahiwal, vide F. I. R. No. 162, dated 17th September, 1981. Muhammad Anwar, complainant, is the father of Mst. Rani, the abductee of this case.

2. The prosecution case is that Mst. Rani had been abducted through deceitful means by Aslam, Sher Zaman, Gundal, Wahdat Khan and Riaz, petitioner, and they were seen in the company of the abductee by Muhammad Yar and Dost Muhammad P. Ws. on 14th September, 1981. The abductee was recovered from Nowshera and was produced before a Magistrate at Sahiwal on 9th November, 1981 for making a statement under section 164, Cr. P. C. In that statement, the prosecutrix has alleged that she was abducted among others by Riaz petitioner, and that she was also subjected to rape by him, after she had been taken to tribal area. The petitioner was arrested on 14th November, 1981 and since then he is in the judicial lock-up.

3. The petitioner applied for grant of bail after arrest to the learned Additional Sessions Judge-V, Sahiwal, who rejected the same, vide order dated 3rd December, 1981. Having been aggrieved by this order, the petitioner approached this Court through the present petition.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner has been falsely implicated because of enmity. Dost Muhammad and Yar Muhammad, the so-called Waj Takkar witnesses, have given him a clean chit, inasmuch as they, deposed that they did not see the prosecutrix in company of the petitioner at the alleged time of abduction. It is next contended that the recitals of F. I. R. gave an impression that the girl has left the house of her father of her own accord, as she had taken away cash and her ornaments with her. On inquiry from the learned State counsel, he has informed me that Mst. Rani's age has been given to be 17/18 years by the lady doctor.

5. The learned counsel for the State has vehemently opposed this petition on the ground that the offence charged is serious which is punish able with 25 years' imprisonment and in this way the case of the petitioner falls within the prohibitory clause of section 497, Cr. P. C.

6. I have weighed the arguments advanced by the learned counsel for the parties. Dost Muhammad and Yar Muhammad P. Ws. have declared in unequivocal terms that Riaz Petitioner was not among the abductors. The abductee is major and at one stage she also admitted that she was the legally. wedded wife of the main accused, namely, Gundal. Be that as it may, the case of the petitioner necessarily calls for an inquiry to the effect whether the petitioner had committed an offence punishable with imprison ment for life or not. In this view of the matter, I allow this petition and admit the petitioner to bail in the sure of Rs. 20,000 (Rupees twenty thousand only) with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of A. C., Sahiwal.

S.G.D. Bail granted

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