Mere Presence is not enough to convict without Solid Evidence --- Lahore High Court, Lahore Acquits Juvenile due to Lack of Evidence  

Islamabad 05-03-2025: The Lahore High Court (Rawalpindi Bench) has acquitted a juvenile accused of murdering her husband, citing inconsistencies in prosecution evidence and granting her the benefit of doubt.  

Acquitted was convicted by the trial Court for the murder of her husband, under Section 302(b) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). She was sentenced to life imprisonment along with a fine of Rs. 500,000, payable to the legal heirs of the deceased. The case originated from FIR No. 36/2021, lodged at Police Station Musa Khel, District Mianwali.  

According to the prosecution acquitted allegedly killed her husband inside their home on April 2, 2021, on the instigation of her father, brothers, and paternal uncle, who opposed their love marriage. The prosecution relied on the eyewitness accounts of the deceased’s brothers, PW-9 and PW-10, who claimed to have seen the murder.  

Mr. Justice Sadaqat Ali Khan, while announcing the verdict in [Criminal Appeal No. 589 of 2024], highlighted multiple legal and evidentiary flaws in the prosecution’s case:  

1. The witnesses claimed that two gunshots were fired, but only one bullet casing was recovered from the crime scene.  
2. Their alleged presence at the scene was doubtful.   
3. The prosecution argued that acquitted family pressured her to commit the murder, but she had previously stood against her family in Court in support of her husband.  
4. The Court found this motive implausible.   
5. Acquitted father, her brothers, and her uncle were acquitted in a separate trial due to lack of evidence.  
6. This significantly weakened the prosecution’s case.      
7. The alleged .44 bore rifle used in the crime was recovered from an open field accessible to everyone, making its link to the accused questionable.     
8. The prosecution relied on the argument that since the accused was present in the house, she must explain her husband’s death.   
9. The Court rejected this, citing (2017 SCMR 564) Arshad Khan Vs. The State, which holds that mere presence is not enough to convict without solid evidence.     
10. The judgment reaffirmed the legal principle that if even a single reasonable doubt arises, the accused is entitled to acquittal as a right, not as a concession.  

The Court set aside the conviction, stating that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Acquitted and ordered to be released immediately, unless required in another case.

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