-Post arrest bail--Caught hold to deceased—Bail, grant of--Deceased was shot dead during night

 PLJ 2022 SC (Cr.C.) 1

Criminal Procedure Code, 1898 (V of 1898)--

----S. 497--Pakistan Penal Code, (XLV of 1860), S. 302(b)--Post arrest bail--Caught hold to deceased—Bail, grant of--Deceased was shot dead during night--Five persons could not have held deceased without risking their own safety in face of an incoming shot--Petitioner is named in FIR and assigned role of a facilitator by holding deceased--Petitioner’s culpability requires further probe, paving way for his release of bail--Appeal allowed.         [P. 2] A & B

Mian Taj Muhammad, ASC and Ms. Abida Parveen Channar, AOR for Petitioner.

Mr. Hussain Khan Baloch, Addl. Prosecutor General Sindh along with Syed Jafar Shah, DSP Tando, Allah Yar for State.

Date of hearing: 10.9.2021.

 PLJ 2022 SC (Cr.C.) 1
[Appellate Jurisdiction]
Present: Sajjad Ali Shah and Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, JJ.
GHULAM HYDER--Petitioner
versus
STATE--Respondent
Crl. P. No. 96-K of 2021, decided on 10.9.2021.
(Against the judgment dated 28.06.2021 passed by the High Court of Sindh in Cr. Bail Application No. S-203 of 2021)

Order

Qazi Muhammad Amin Ahmed, J.--The petitioner is in the array of accused in a case of homicide wherein one Niaz Ali was shot dead during the night of 11th December, 2020 within the precincts of Police Station B. Section Tando Allah Yar Khan. It is alleged that during the fateful night, the accused six in number, in the backdrop of a dispute over water turn, assaulted the deceased; solitary fatal shot is attributed to Azhar co-accused; remainder of the accused are blamed to have clutched the deceased whereafter he was hit on his forehead, bullet exiting from the rear. The petitioner has been declined bail lastly by the High Court vide impugned order dated 28.6.2021, leave to appeal wherefrom is being prayed for on the grounds that on stated facts the accusation called for further probe inasmuch as five persons could not have held the deceased without risking their own safety in the face of an incoming shot nor there was any necessity for such a dangerous exercise when, according to the prosecution itself, the deceased was allegedly within the reach of the accused targeting him from a short distance. The bottom line is that a wider net is cast to rope the entire clan in a midnight affair.

2. Heard. Record perused.

3. Be that as it may, though named in the crime report alongside others of the same brotherhood, the petitioner is assigned role of a facilitator by holding the deceased alongside four others; the question is as to whether in the facts and circumstances of the case as alleged by the complainant himself, such facilitation was at all required, that too, without incurring fatal risk of being unintendedly hit by the shot in the darkness and as such petitioner’s culpability requires further probe within the contemplation of sub-section (2) of Section 497 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898, paving way for his release on bail, particularly when his continuous detention is serving no useful purpose. The petition is converted into appeal and allowed; the appellant is admitted to bail on his furnishing bond in the sum of Rs. 500,000/- with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned trial Court.

(K.Q.B.)          Appeal allowed