Report in Dawn, November 5th, 2020
PESHAWAR: An anti-terrorism court has acquitted three people charged with killing Sikh peace activist Charam Jeet Singh on the outskirts of the provincial capital over two years ago.
Judge Fazal Sattar pronounced that the prosecution had failed to prove the charge against the accused, including Tariq, Amir Hamza and Sheharyar, all residents of Kagawala area in Peshawar, while the evidence available on record didn’t connect them with the commission of the murder.
However, the court convicted the accused, Tariq, under Pakistan Penal Code sections 468 (forgery) and 471 (using forged document) for using a fake registration plate in a vehicle and awarded him one-year rigorous imprisonment and Rs10,000 fine.
It extended the benefit of the Code of Criminal Procedure Section 382-B to the convict, Tariq. The period he’s already spent behind bars will be counted as part of his jail term.
Tariq has been kept in jail, while the other two accused were released on bail earlier.
Legal heirs of the deceased had declined to pursue the case and didn’t hired a private counsel.
Charan Jeet Singh, a social activist and a vocal voice of interfaith harmony, was killed by an unidentified gunman inside his grocery shop at Scheme Chowk in Badabher area on May 29, 2018.
The counter-terrorism department arrested the three accused claiming that they’re extortionists.
It also insisted that the three were involved in the murder of Charan Jeet Singh for not paying extortion.
The FIR of the killing was registered under PPC sections 302, 34, 468 and 471 and Anti-Terrorism Act Section 7.
The defence lawyers contended that their clients were baselessly charged in the case as they had nothing to do with the murder.
They also argued that the prosecution had failed to produce a single evidence of the crime against the accused, while there was no witness to the killing.
The counsel said merely on the basis of allegations leveled by the prosecution, their clients couldn’t be convicted for murder.
They contended that the prosecution hadn’t produced any call date to prove that any of the accused had made a phone call to the deceased to demand extortion.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1588664/three-acquitted-in-sikh-peace-activist-murder-case
