Shabbir Ahmad and 3 others vs State and another
The petitioners sought pre-arrest bail in a case registered under Section 302/34, Pakistan Penal Code 1860, relating to the alleged homicidal death of Mst. Naseem Bibi. The core legal question was whether the petitioners were entitled to pre-arrest bail in a heinous offense involving capital punishment where they were nominated in the FIR and supported by medical evidence. The Lahore High Court held that the petitioners were nominated in the crime report, implicated by eyewitnesses under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898, and the medical postmortem report categorically established homicide while ruling out suicide. The Court laid down the principle that pre-arrest bail is restricted to exceptional and rare cases where mala fides, enmity, or absence of an offense is apparent on the record, elements which were missing in this case. Consequently, the pre-arrest bail petition was dismissed.
- Whether pre-arrest bail can be granted in a case involving capital punishment when the accused are nominated in the FIR?
- Does a medical report ruling out suicide and confirming homicide provide sufficient grounds to deny pre-arrest bail?
- What is the scope of pre-arrest bail in criminal matters?
- Section 302/34, Pakistan Penal Code 1860
- Section 161, Code of Criminal Procedure 1898
ORDER
Apprehending their arrest at the hands of police, Shabbir Ahmad, Mohammad Nadeem, Mohammad Naveed and Mst. Khurshid Bibi/petitioners seeks their pre-arrest bail in case FIR No. 275/2 021, dated 16.03.2021, offence under Section 302/34, PPC, registered with Police Station Saddar Jalalpur Pirwala, Multan.
2. Succinctly accusation against the petiti oners, as per contents of the FIR, is that on 16.03.2021, at 7:00 a.m. Mst.
Naseem Bibi daughter of the complainant made a telephone call to him requesting to take her from the house of her in- laws and thereafter Naveed Ahmed informed that Naseem Bibi had died.
3. Arguments heard, record perused.
4. Record available on file reflects that the petitioners are duly named in the crime report, who as per prosecution accusations, inflicted kicks/fists, as well as, sota blows to Mst. Naseem Bibi and while putting rope in her neck, dragged her, which resulted into her death. While making their statements recorded under Section 161, Cr.P.C. all the prosecution witnesses fully implicated the petitioners as culprits of the occurrence. During the course of arguments learned counsel for the petitioners contended that it is a case of suicide, however , perusal of opinion given by the doctor after conducting postmortem examination reflects that the doctor , in categorical terms, mentioned that it is a case of homicide while possibility of suicide as altogether overruled. It has also come on record that Mst. Saba sister of the Deceased is married with Tanveer Ahmed son of petitioners No. 1 and 4 and brother of petitioners No. 2 and 3, hence, prima facie there is no possibility of false implication of the petitioners in the instant case, which needless to mention entails capital punishment. It goes without saying that the scope of pre-arrest bail is limited to exceptional and rare cases and it can be granted only in those matters where it would appear that the registration of such cases was based on enmity /mala fides or where no offence was shown to have been committed on the very face of the record, which is squarely missing in the case in hand.
5. For the foregoing reasons this Court is persuaded to hold that the instant petition is squarely devoid of any merits, which is accordingly dismissed. Resultantly ad-interim relief granted vide order dated 07.07.2021 shall cease to exist forthwith.