PESHAWAR: The Model Criminal Court Charsadda has ordered release of a student in the murder case of his school principal allegedly over blasphemous comments.

Syed Fahim Shah, a first year student, was behind bars for murdering principal of Islamia Public School, Shabqadar, in January 2018.

The police had claimed they had arrested the student along with the pistol he used in the crime, and that he had also confessed to the murder when he was produced before a judicial magistrate.

The Shabqdar police had registered a case against him under section 302 of Pakistan Penal Code.

However, the model criminal court acquitted the accused on the grounds that the police tortured him for obtaining his confession as per the statement of the magistrate. The judge said his arrest and recovery of the weapon were pregnant with doubt/illegality/irregularities, and that the alleged witnesses also failed to prove their presence on the spot of the occurrence. The judge observed that the medical evidence was also in conflict with the police version.

Shabbir Hussain Gigyani Advocate appeared for the juvenile accused.

The student during the course of the investigation had told the police that principal Sareer Ahmad had snubbed him for skipping classes to participate in a protest sit-in of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan at Faizabad in Rawalpindi.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2022