Delay of one hour and fifteen minutes in lodging the FIR --- Consequential --- Accused was charged that he along with his co - accused committed murder of the brother of complainant by firing -

 Delay of one hour and fifteen minutes in lodging the FIR --- Consequential --- Accused was charged that he along with his co - accused committed murder of the brother of complainant by firing --- Incident took place on 28.06.2017 at 6.00 p.m. in the area which was at a distance of three farlang from the place of occurrence --- Complainant reported the incident through written complaint at Police Station , after that FIR was registered at 07.15 p.m .--- Complainant took one hour and fifteen minutes to report the incident to the police --- Complainant deposed during cross examination that after about fifteen minutes of the occurrence , he went to bazaar and got drafted a written complaint --- Said witness deposed that police arrived at the place of occurrence after about one and half / two hours after the occurrence --- Upon arrival of the police , complainant got written the application for registration of case and went to police station and then police came at the spot and brought the dead body --- Investigating Officer deposed during examination - in - chief that on receiving the complaint , moved by complainant , on his dictation , FIR was generated through the computer system --- However ,the written complaint was not recorded in the FIR register , which threw doubt on the time of reporting the incident to the policePolice did not register FIR in the book / register kept for registration of cases and instead entered the complaint in the computer and assigned a number No explanation had been furnished regarding how the FIR registration number and E - tag number appeared on that document Said fact led to only one inference that the document was prepared later - Esidential value of the FIR would be reduced if it was made after the unexplained delay , particularly when the same was not entered in the printed Form as provided under R. 24.5 ( 1 ) of Police Rules , 1914 -- Thus , the mandatory provisions of the law were departed from which created doubt about the truthfulness of the allegation levelled in the FIR When the incident was reported to the police and unexplained holes were left in the prosecution story , the benefit of same must accrue to the accused --- Circumstances established that the prosecution had badly failed to bring home a charge against the accused beyond any reasonable doubt.

Criminal Appeal No. 27767 , P.S.L.A. No. 41181

and Murder Reference No. 241 of 2019

TAHA AZAAM ULLAH and others

versus The STATE and others -

2024 M L D 359