PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court has granted bail to an accused charged with honour-related double murder of his sister and another person as a compromise took place between the parties.

A single-member bench of Justice Shahid Khan accepted petition filed by the accused named Said Rehman with the condition to furnish two surety bonds each of Rs200,000.

The bench observed that though Section 311 of Pakistan Penal Code, dealing with Fasad Fil Arz (mischief on earth), was non-compoundable, however, when other grounds available to the accused prima facie made his case one of further inquiry, then even a compromise alone could be considered for the grant of bail.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered under sections 302 and 311 of PPC on November 23, 2022, at Nawagai police station in Buner district. The complainant in the FIR was Shahji Rehman, the brother of the deceased man Shahid Rehman.

FIR of occurrence was registered in Buner on Nov 23, 2022

The complainant alleged that his brother and the deceased woman were in love and they had left their respective homes on November 21, 2022. He claimed that they had taken shelter at the residence of one of their relatives in Swabi.

He stated that on the day of occurrence, a cousin of the deceased woman named Zaman Khan approached them stating that they wanted to patch up the matter and for that purpose the escaped man and woman should be brought back.

The complainant said that his father and some other elders went to Swabi to bring them back to Buner.

However, he said that on their way back they were attacked with firearms which resulted in death of his brother on the spot whereas the woman received critical injuries and expired at a hospital.

He charged the present petitioner Said Rehman, Zaman Khan and another of their relative Mohammad Zada for the commission of the offence. Zaman Khan was arrested after the occurrence and after trial he was acquitted last year.

The present petitioner Said Rehman and Mohammad Zada had been absconding and the former was subsequently arrested on June 2, 2024.

Advocate Khan Sardar Alam appeared for the petitioner and stated that the evidence on record didn’t connect his client with the commission of the offence.

He stated that the parties had patched up the matter outside the court through a compromise and the complainant had no objection if the petitioner was released on bail.

Shahji Rehman and father of the deceased woman, Mian Gul, who were present in the court, also submitted their respective affidavits whereby they stated that they had no objection over the release of the petitioner.

Earlier, an additional sessions judge had rejected bail plea of the petitioner on July 6, 2024, observing that from tentative assessment of the available record it could be safely concluded that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accused was involved in the commission of the offence and was not entitled to the concession of bail.

The court had observed that circumstantial evidence corroborated the version of the prosecution and sufficient incriminating material existed against the accused.

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2024