LAHORE: The Lahore High Court has granted post-arrest bail to a Christian who was a juvenile at the time of his arrest in one of three cases of blasphemy registered against him at different police stations of Sargodha.

The suspect was initially arrested in an FIR of Satellite Town police lodged on July 16, 2023 and later implicated in three different cases of different police stations on the basis of mere suspicion.

He was declared to be a juvenile by the trial court on July 20 2024 after several hearings spanning over months.

He was not nominated in any of the FIRs as an alleged offender or perpetrator of the blasphemy offences but implicated by the complainants through supplementary statements after several weeks.

The petitioner’s counsel said the trial court of Sargodha denied bail to the suspect even though he qualifies to be released on the basis of the declaration of his juvenility as well as on merits.

Since the suspect was not even 17 when he was arrested on Aug 27, 2023, therefore, the police ought to have applied the Juvenile Justice System Act, 2018 and declared him a juvenile and the court should have immediately released him on bail on its own motion.

After the denial of bail from the trial court, the suspect approached the LHC for the same relief.

The FIR says the complainant was returning home along with a prayer-leader after offering Fajr prayer, when he found a white paper pasted on the wall of his house containing some derogatory writings with blue ink.

Allowing the bail petition of the applicant, Justice Muhammad Waheed Khan observed that the petitioner was not nominated in the FIR rather he was implicated in through a supplementary statement by the complainant, but no source of his involvement had been mentioned.

The judge noted that nothing was available on record that any witness personally viewed the alleged incident.

The judge observed that the forensic report about handwriting of the petitioner and the paper also came negative. He said the

The judge said although the police recovered pasting tape from the possession of the petitioner, it hardly connected the petitioner with the commission of the alleged crime.

He mentioned that the police also recorded the statement of the prayer-leader, but admittedly, he was not an eyewitness of the alleged occurrence.

The investigating agency took the disputed paper containing derogatory remarks into its possession and had taken the samples of handwriting of the petitioner and both were sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency for comparison of the handwriting.

However, the judge pointed out that the agency in its report held that no conclusion could be drawn on the basis of provided evidence.

“Thus forensic report is negative in nature,” the judge maintained.

Justice Khan further observed that the prime suspect had already been allowed bail by the LHC, so, there was force in the assertion of the petitioner’s counsel that he also deserved to be treated alike on the touchstone of principle of consistency.

The judge said the trial had not witnessed any considerable progress and the corporal custody was no more required, therefore, the petitioner cannot be kept behind the bars for an indefinite period without determining him guilty.

The judge allowed the bail subject to furnishing surety bonds of Rs100,000.

However, the Christian youth would remain behind the bars since his bail petitions in other cases are still pending before two different judges of the LHC.

Published in Dawn, January 5th, 2025