Criminal Appeal 345/2019 (S.B.) Sindh High Court, Karachi

Sindh High Court · 2022 · Before Omar Sial

A 28 year old lady, Aqeela Bibi, was found dead inside her home on 14.09.2011. The news of her death was given to her brother, Amir Iqbal, by her 3 weeping small children. The children told their maternal uncle that their father, Habibullah, had been fighting with their mother for the last 3 days and had also taken away her mobile phone from her. When the children had woken up in the morning, they had found their mother dead with her head smashed by a hammer. Amir Iqbal went to Aqeela’s house and saw her lying dead in a pool of blood with a hammer lying on the floor close to her body. No one else was present at home. Amir Iqbal recorded a statement under section 154 Cr.P.C. in which he expressed suspicion that Aqeela had been murdered by her husband Habibullah. F.I.R. No. 339 of 2011 was registered under section 302 P.P.C. at the Mobina Town police station at 1:00 p.m. on 14.09.2011.

2. Habibullah, who was not seen since the murder of his wife, had been on the run for nearly 7 years, when on 26.02.2018 he was arrested at 4:05 p.m. by S.I. Farooq Azam. Habibullah pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. At trial the prosecution examined four witnesses. PW-1 Amir Iqbal was the complainant of the case. PW-2 Fazeela Bibi was the daughter of the deceased lady. PW-3 S.I. Syed Muhammad Farooq Azam was the investigating officer of the case. PW-4 Dr. Zakia Khursheed was the 2 medico-legal officer at the Jinnah Hospital who did the post mortem. In his section 342 Cr.P.C. statement, Habibullah, denied all wrong doing and professed innocence.

3. The learned 1st Additional Sessions Judge, Karachi East on 21.05.2019 announced his judgment, in terms of which Habibullah was convicted for an offence punishable under section 302(b) P.P.C. He was sentenced to a life in prison and also directed to pay RS. 500,000 as compensation for the legal heirs of the deceased lady. It is this judgment of the learned trial court which has been challenged through this appeal.

4. Mr. Habibullah Jiskani, learned counsel for the appellant has argued that this is a case of no evidence. He says that there was no eye witness in the case; the crime weapon i.e. the blood stained hammer and a blood stained sheet seized by the police were not produced in court; Fazeela, the daughter of the couple, had seen the dead body when she had woken up and therefore did not know who had killed her mother. To the contrary, Mr. Talib Memon, learned APG, who was assisted by Mr. Intikhab Alam, learned counsel for the complainant, while agreeing with that there were no eye witnesses nor was the case property produced in court, took the view that Habibullah’s conduct and actions after the death of his wife are in themselves sufficient to establish that it was indeed he himself who had killed his wife.

5. I have heard the learned counsels and with their able assistance have also gone through the evidence recorded at trial with a view of re-appraise the evidence. My observations and findings are as follows.

6. The present case appears to be a classic case of gender based violence. Fazeela Bibi, the daughter of the couple, at trial told the court that quarrels between her parents was a normal occurrence.

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