A sessions court on 06-March-2025 acquitted a man in a drug trafficking case. Lal Marjan was charged with carrying 25 kilogrammes of hashish in Bilal Colony, Korangi, in March last year.
The additional district and sessions judge (East) observed that the prosecution miserably failed to prove the charge against the accused beyond reasonable doubt. He exonerated the accused from the charge by extending the benefit of the doubt.
Highlighting flaws in the prosecution case, the judge observed: “As per memo of recovery and arrest, alleged recovery was shown to be effected from busy and populated area on spy information but despite of such fact, complainant/investigation officer did not make any effort to call or arrange any private witness of locality at the time of alleged arrest and recovery.
“Such omission to secure independent mashirs (witnesses) could not be brushed aside lightly.” He observed that the prosecution also did not place on record evidence to show from whom the accused had purchased or to whom he intended to sell the seized drugs.
The judge said that perusal of prosecution evidence showed material contradictions, discrepancies and anomalies in testimony of the prosecution witnesses. “For instance, there is inconsistency regarding the suspect’s proximity to the bag; the complainant stated that the accused was standing at a distance from the bag, while the mushir/witness claimed the accused was holding it,” he added.
The judge noted that all these “infirmities, inconsistencies and anomalies, discussed hereinabove, renders whole prosecution case highly doubtful.” According to the prosecution, excise officials apprehended Marjan at the Farooq-e-Azam Bus Stop in Korangi’s Bilal Colony area on March 28, 2024 and during the search of his blue coloured travelling bag, 50 packets of charas (hashish) weighing 500 grammes each were recovered.
In his statement under the Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused claimed to be innocent. He said he had been falsely implicated in this case by the excise police, adding that he had been picked up by police from his residence in Lyari’s Muhammadi Colony.
Published in News Daily on 07-March-2025.