PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday dismissed a man’s appeal against his conviction for molesting a minor boy and blackmailing him.

While announcing the verdict, a bench comprising Justice Abdul Lateef Khan and Justice Syed Afsar Shah observed that the

prosecution had proved its case against the appellant, Mohammad Asif.

The appellant was convicted by an anti-terrorism court in Mardan last year under Section 377 of Pakistan Penal Code and Anti-Terrorism Act (ATC) and sentenced him to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs5,000.

However, the trial court acquitted a co-accused in the case, Farman Khan, for a lack of evidence.

The bench dismissed a request of the complainant and the child’s father, Siyal Khan, for increase in the convict’s sentence.

It also dismissed an appeal of the complainant against the acquittal of the co-accused, Farman.

The complainant’s lawyer, Mian Murad Ali, said the molested child was a sixth grade schoolchild from Swabi and that the convict abused him and filmed him before blackmailing him.

He said the co-accused was acquitted by the trial court despite the recovery of the said film from his cellphone.

The lawyer said the evidence on record were enough for the conviction of the two.

The convict’s lawyer argued that his client was falsely implicated in the case as the charge of abusing the boy had never been proved.

He said the medical report of the boy was also negative proving that he was not abused.

The bench observed how the medical report could be positive after a month of the incident.

CONVICTION SET ASIDE: The bench also accepted the appeal of a man against his conviction in a terrorism case.

The prosecution had alleged that the appellant, Hazrat Bilal, a resident of Dalazak Road in Peshawar, was arrested on Nov 25, 2013, by officials of Chamkani police station and his possession they had recovered three hand grenades, a pistol and its rounds.

An anti-terrorism court had convicted the appellant and sentenced him to 14 years rigorous imprisonment.

The appellant’s lawyer, Saeed Khan, said the prosecution case was full of lacunas as first of all they had not applied for seeking approval of the government for trial of the appellant which was mandatory under Section 19 (8) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

He said the prosecution had produced the report of bomb disposal unit and as that report was a public document, it was necessary to produce its author as witness but the prosecution had not produced him for verification of the said document.

The lawyer said the appellant was in fact taken away by the security forces from his house and that he was later handed over to the police.

He said the father, brothers and neighbours of the appellant had testified before the trial court that he (appellant) was taken from home but the trial court ignored it.

The bench dismissed the appeal of a member of Bara-based banned outfit and upheld his conviction by an ATC for possessing explosive material to attack a police post in Peshawar.

The appellant, Shoaib Khan alias Qari, a resident of Khyber Agency, was arrested by the Badabher police on April 20, 2014 after seizing seven kilogrammes of explosive material.

The prosecution claimed that the appellant was a member of Lashkar-i-Islam and was planning to blow up the Safan police post.

The ATC had convicted him and sentenced him to 14 years rigorous imprisonment with Rs50,000 fine.

An additional advocate general, who represented the state, said the appellant was caught red-handed and that he had confessed to the crime before a judicial magistrate.

Published in Dawn January 29th, 2015

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