PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has turned down the bail plea of a juvenile person in a case of the honour-related killing of his former sister-in-law in Upper Dir district.

Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar of a single-member bench observed that tender age didn’t give anyone licence to commit the offence of heinous and serious nature.

The bench observed that Section 6 of the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018, extended some concession to a juvenile accused aged under 16 years but the court, considering facts and circumstances of the case as well as the nature of offence the petitioner allegedly committed, was not inclined to order his release on bail.

The FIR of the killing was registered at the Gandigar police station of Upper Dir on Aug 18, 2021, on the complaint of the deceased, Shehzad Bibi, who was injured in the attack and breathed her last afterwards.

Declares tender age doesn’t give anyone licence to commit heinous crime

The woman claimed in her dying declaration recorded with the police that she married co-accused Wahidzada, brother of the petitioner, around 10 years ago and had three daughters.

She had said that around a year before the gun attack, her husband first defamed her by accusing her of having an extramarital affair with a local resident and then divorced her forcing her to live with her parents along with her daughters.

The woman claimed that on the day of occurrence she was going to a nearby spring to fetch water and on her way, the petitioner armed with a weapon fired at her causing her critical injuries.

Besides the petitioner, the former husband of the complainant, the FIR also named her another former brother-in-law, Yaseen, and former father-in-law Sherinzada, as accused in the case.

While the present petitioner and Yaseen were arrested the other two accused persons have been absconding.

Initially, the trial court conducted jointly tried the two accused but in March 2022, it ordered the production of a separate charge sheet (challan) about the petitioner declaring that since the petitioner was a juvenile person, his trial could not be conducted jointly with the adult accused.

The trial court had observed that according to a certificate issued to the petitioner by the headmaster of the relevant school, he was under the age of 15 years at the time of the woman’s killing.

While rejecting the petition, the bench observed that the deceased then injured Shehzad Bibi had directly charged the petitioner with firing at her in her dying declaration.

It added that it was a daylight occurrence, which took place in presence of witnesses besides the parties knew each other well, so the identity of the accused by the deceased and other witnesses could not be questioned at that stage.

The petitioner’s counsel contended that his client had been behind bars since Aug 30, 2021, and he had already suffered a lot while facing joint trial with the co-accused prior to submission of a separate challan against him under the Juvenile Justice System Act and therefore, he should be given the concession of bail under Section 6(5) of the Act.

The bench observed that the plea with regard to juvenility of the petitioner had been formally raised at a belated stage, so the trial court or the prosecution couldn’t be solely held responsible to that effect.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2022