PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Monday granted bail to two men arrested by the counter-terrorism department on the charge of killing Sikh advocate of peace and interfaith harmony Sardar Charanjeet Singh here four months ago.

Justice Mohammad Ibrahim Khan accepted the bail petitions of suspects Tariq Khan and Sheharyar and directed them to furnish two surety bonds of Rs300,000 each.

Sardar Charanjeet Singh, a social activist of Sikh community, was killed near his grocery store on Kohat Road in the provincial capital on Mar 29 by unidentified gunmen riding a motorcycle.

The CTD later arrested the two suspects charging them with murder. The third suspect, Hamza, is at large.

Lawyer insists Charanjeet’s family blamed militants for killing

They were charged under Section 7 of the Anti- Terrorism Act and Section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

Barrister Amir Khan Chamkani and Qaiser Baig appeared for Tariq and Sheharyar, respectively, and contended that the CTD had falsely implicated their clients in the case.

Barrister Chamkani said the legal heirs of Charanjeet had suspected that the deceased was killed by militants.

He said the CTD had claimed that few years ago, a robbery had taken place in which the deceased had charged Tariq and therefore, he (Tariq) wanted to settle that score with him and thus, he killed him.

The lawyer added that contrary to the CTD allegations, the petitioner was never charged by the deceased in that robbery case.

He said there was not a single evidence available against the petitioner and the prosecution had been relying on an alleged statement given by him to the CTD under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure wherein he had admitted his guilt.

The lawyer argued that statement under Section 161 CrPC was not an admissible piece of evidence as it was not recorded before judicial magistrate.

He said family members of the deceased had not charged any of the two petitioners.

BAIL REJECTED: Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth of a single-member high court bench dismissed the bail petition of a prime accused in the Mashal Khan lynching case, Asad Zia Katlang, who had remained absconder for a long time before being arrested.

Last month, the court had dismissed bail petitions of two other accused in the case, Sabir Mayar and Izharullah alias Johny, but ordered the production of the charge sheet against them before the trial court with 15 days following which the trial court should complete the trial within two months.

Asad Katlang, who was an employee at Abdul Wali Khan University, is accused of masterminding the killing of Mashal Khan on the false blasphemy allegation on Apr 13, 2017.

An anti-terrorism court had on Feb 7 convicted 31 of the 57 accused facing trial in the lynching case, awarding death sentence to the prime accused named Imran Khan, life imprisonment to five of them and three years’ imprisonment to 25 others.

The ATC, which had conducted trial inside Haripur Central prison, however acquitted 26 of the accused persons observing that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.

The trial court had issued perpetual arrest warrants of four of the then absconding accused, including the present petitioner, and had declared them proclaimed offenders.

Barrister Amir Khan Chamkani appeared for Mashal’s father Iqbal Khan and argued that the petitioner was not entitled to the concession of bail as there were severe incontrovertible evidences against him.

He said the petitioner was visible in three video footages of the incident and had played active part in the conspiracy to kill Mashal Khan.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2018