PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has rejected appeal of the provincial government, seeking enhancement of sentence awarded by a trial court to a convict for sexually assaulting a nine-year-old boy.

A two-member bench consisting of Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar and Justice Dr Khurshid Iqbal observed that the high court had already partially allowed appeal of the convict named Mohammad Nabi on January 1, 2022, and his sentence of seven years rigorous imprisonment had been reduced to four years imprisonment.

A judicial magistrate had convicted the accused on October 13, 2020, after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting the minor boy. The court had sentenced him to seven years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs20,000 on him.

The provincial government filed appeal against the judgment on multiple grounds, stating that the prosecution also included section 53 (sexual abuse) of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act in the FIR, but the trial court ignored that provision and not sentenced the convict under it.

High court has already reduced imprisonment of accused from seven to four years

The government also stated that the maximum punishment provided for sexually assaulting a child was life imprisonment and the trial court awarded only seven years imprisonment without providing any ground as to why lesser punishment was awarded to him.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Levies post in Batkhela on May 18, 2020, under section 377 (unnatural offence) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The victim boy had visited the Levies post along with his uncle and told the officials that the accused had took him forcibly to a deserted place and sexually assaulted him. The trial court had ruled that the prosecution succeeded in proving its case against the accused.

The trial court had ruled that the stance of the prosecution was further supported by medical reports wherein the medical officer confirmed that sexual abuse had been done to the victim. It was added that the accused also recorded his confessional statement wherein he admitted his guilt.

The state had filed appeal against the said judgment in Feb 2021 stating that no mitigating circumstances existed because of which the convict had to be awarded lesser punishment by the trial court.

Similarly, the convict had also filed appeal, seeking his acquittal and setting aside the judgment of the trial court on different grounds. He claimed that the prosecution case was suffering from several discrepancies and the trial court erred in convicting him.

During pendency of the state appeal, the high court had already taken up for hearing the convict’s appeal and granted him partial relief by reducing his sentence.

When the bench took up for hearing the state appeal, a court official informed it about the decision of the high court in the convict’s appeal.

When the bench confronted an additional advocate general about the development in the case, he stated that he would challenge the high court’s judgment in the convict’s appeal before the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2023