Killer of wife gets 14 years in prison | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

Killer of wife gets 14 years in prison

By Ishaq Tanoli

KARACHI: A sessions court sentenced a man to 14 years in prison on Tuesday on charges of killing his wife over a domestic dispute in 2003.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Sanaullah Khan Ghori pronounced his verdict after recording testimonies of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court found Haji Mohammad, son of Muhammad Urs, guilty of killing his wife, Bashiran, within the remit of the Mobina Town police station in April 2003.

The court ruled that the accused committed qatl-i-amd not liable to qisas as mentioned in Section 306(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code and the same was punishable under Section 308 (punishment in qatl-i-amd not liable to qisas) of the penal code.

The judge also directed the convict to pay Rs280,167 to the legal heirs of the deceased as compensation (diyat). The payment of diyat would be payable in 36 equal monthly instalments within a period of three years, the verdict said.

The judge wrote in his verdict that it was an admitted position that most important piece of evidence in the case was the confessional statement of the accused in which he categorically stated the circumstances and manners under which he had committed the murder of his wife.

The accused was produced before the learned judicial magistrate from jail, which shows that his confessional statement was recorded without any duress and coercion, it said and added: “The accused has simply denied of have committed the murder of his wife, but failed to bring on record what was happened with deceased and who had committed her murder though he stated during cross-examination that they were residing together”.

After evaluation of facts and circumstances that came up on record, the court was of the firm opinion that the accused had committed the murder of his wife by hitting her head with a hard and blunt object, the judgment concluded.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict.

According to the prosecution, the accused had killed his wife at their residence in Ayub Goth on April 24, 2003 after a domestic quarrel. The police arrested the accused the following day and said that they also recovered a wooden stick used in the crime from the possession of the accused.

A case (FIR 53/2003) was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the deceased’s father at the Mobina Town police station.

In his final arguments, the public prosecutor, Younus Baloch, contended that the ocular and circumstantial evidence available on record had fully implicated the accused in the crime.

He maintained that the accused had voluntarily confessed to having killed his wife before the court of a judicial magistrate.

However, the defence counsel argued that the accused was framed in the case as there was no eyewitness to the alleged incident.
Source: Dawn
Date:10/14/2009