Islamabad:
The Supreme Court acquitted a man, who spent 12 years in prison in accusation of rape his own daughter, linking his sentence of imprisonment to perpetuity due to defective and contradictory evidence.
A bench of three members led by judge Hashim Kakar, rendered a 10 -page judgment, written by judge Ali Baqar Najafi. The court canceled the previous verdicts of the Court of First Instance and the High Court of Lahore (LHC) which had confirmed the sentence.
The ordinance said that proof of the accusation had been rejected because it lacked reliability. “The sentence and the conviction of the appellant are canceled. It is immediately released if it is not required in another case,” said the order.
The case dates back to 2010 when the daughter of the six -year -old man accused her of rape.
He was then sentenced to life prison and sentenced to a fine of 35,000 rupees by a court of first instance. The LHC confirmed this verdict in 2013.
The Supreme Court’s decision was focused on critical inconsistencies in the accusation case. The judge also mentioned that the court of first instance had not passed the rationality test for the victim before registering his declaration.
Under the law, the testimony of a child is only eligible if the judge is convinced that the child understands the questions and the duty to tell the truth. “A child is a competent witness if he has a sufficient standard of maturity of understanding the facts that were to be told by her,” said the decision.
The court concluded that the girl’s declaration contained major contradictions and lacked clarity concerning the date and time of the alleged incident. In addition, medical evidence was deemed incoherent, as the doctor who initially declared rape later refused him during the counter-examination.
The decision also noted that the main witnesses of the accusation, the mother and the maternal uncle of the complainant, were not the eyewitnesses of the alleged crime. Their testimony was classified as hearing and therefore inadmissible.
An important factor that was recorded during the procedure was a continuous family dispute concerning inheritance and other domestic problems, suggesting a possible alternative motive behind allegations.
Declaring proof of the fully unreliable accusation, the Supreme Court bench ordered that the accused will be released immediately if he is not sought in any other case.
