KARACHI: A sessions court on Thursday accepted the compromise agreement between the Karsaz traffic accident suspect and families of two deceased persons and the injured, and exonerated the SUV driver from all charges.

According to the prosecution, Imran Arif and his daughter Amna were killed and Abdul Salam and Shane Alexander were injured when an SUV, driven by suspect Natasha Danish, ran them over near Karsaz on Aug 19.

The legal heirs of deceased Imran and Amna — widow Romana, her daughter Umama and son Osama — along with Imran’s brother and complainant Imtiaz had filed an application under Section 345 (2) of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) before Additional District and Sessions Judge (East) Shahid Ali Memon, seeking permission to compound the offence.

Meanwhile, the injured Shane Alexander also filed an affidavit as he had compromised with the suspect.

Court accepts compromise agreement between suspect and families of deceased and injured persons

On Thursday, after hearing the legal heirs of the deceased persons and completing legal formalities including the verification from the National Database and Registration Authority and concerned police authorities, the court exonerated Natasha, who appeared on bail, from the manslaughter charges after accepting a compromise pact between the two parties as the offence under Section 322 (qatl-bis-sabab) is a compoundable offence.

“Accordingly the application U/S 345(2) Cr.P.C is hereby allowed and thereby formal permission is hereby accorded for compounding the offence. Resultantly, application U/S 345(6) Cr.P.C is allowed and thereby the compromise between the parties is accepted. As such the accused is hereby acquitted in the instant case/crime U/S 345(6) Cr.P.C. She is present in court on bail, her bail bond stands cancelled and her surety is discharged,” the court stated in its order.

Earlier, the legal heirs had filed their affidavits before the court in which they stated that they had pardoned suspect Natasha, “in the name of Almighty Allah” as it was an “unintentional incident/ accident which was not committed purposely”.

However, the suspect has to face trial in a drug case as the prosecution claimed that she was under the influence of methamphetamine (crystal meth) while she was driving the SUV.

In the drug case, she also secured bail from the Sindh High Court against a surety bond of Rs1 million, after her bail pleas in the drug case were dismissed twice by the lower courts.

Acquittal plea filed in drug case

Meanwhile, the counsel for the suspect Advocate Aamir Mansoob Qureshi had filed an application before the judicial magistrate (East) under Section 249-A of the CrPC, seeking her acquittal in the drug case.

In the application, the counsel contended that the separate drug case was registered with malafide intention “just to harass” his client.

He argued to acquit his client on grounds that she had been falsely implicated in the case with malafide intentions and ulterior motives of the complainant.

He submitted that the prosecution had nothing to connect his client with the alleged commission of offence and that prosecution also “hopelessly failed to make out a cognizable case” against his client as the story of the prosecution was concocted and unimaginable.

The counsel contended that the FIR was lodged after a delay of 11 days and urged to quash the FIR.

He argued that the Supreme Court in its verdict emphasised that for the same occurrence or incident, only one FIR can be registered.

He contended that from the evidence available on record the charge as alleged the applicant cannot be sustained and in that situation “there is no legal bar for moving application u/s Section 249-A of the CrPC as the same can be moved at any stage of the case” before and after framing charge.

Referring to the Islamic jurisprudence, the counsel argued that “it should be better to acquit a hundred culprits than convicting one innocent soul.”

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024