MUHAMMAD ASGHAR Versus STATE

ORDER

A case under section 452/354/379/337-L(ii)/148/149, P.P.C. is registered against the petitioner and others vide F.I.R. No.67 of 1998 dated 19-2-1998 at Police Station Saddar Farooqabad, District Sheikhupura. According to the F.I.R., the petitioner alongwith others while armed with deadly weapons forcibly entered the house of the complainant. The petitioner opened attack by giving a Sota blow on the left arm of Mst. Khalida Bibi i.e., wife of the complainant. The other accused also joined the petitioner and started beating her with their weapons. During the scuffle, the clothes of Mst. Khalida Bibi were torn and a golden ear ring from her left ear had fallen which was taken away by the assailants. The motive was some dispute of possession over the land.

2. The petitioner had applied for pre-arrest bail but his application was dismissed on merits vide detailed order recorded on 31-3-1998 by a learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sheikhupura. Instead of surrendering to the police custody, the petitioner appears to have remained at large and has now approached this Court through this application for pre-arrest bail after the lapse of about 1-1/2 month. It is contended that the petitioner has falsely been implicated in the case on account of previous civil litigation between the parties; that the injury attributed to the petitioner is minor and with a blunt weapon.

3. I have considered the foregoing facts and find that all these points have been discussed by the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sheikhupura while rejecting the pre-arrest bail petition of the petitioner. As pointed out above, instead of surrendering or courting arrest, the petitioner remained at large since after dismissal of his petition on 31-3-1998. This conduct of the petitioner hardly justifies that he should be granted extraordinary relief in the form of pre- arrest bail particularly when he is named in the F.I.R. and has been attributed a specific role for causing injury to Mst. Khalida Bibi after trespassing into her house alongwith other co-accused who had stripped her naked during scuffle ensuing the attack upon her by the assailants. In such a situation and since there is no mala fide on the part of the Police, the petitioner is not entitled to the extraordinary remedy to avoid his arrest in a cognizable offence. The petition is, therefore, dismissed in limine.

N.H.Q./M-744/L Petition dismissed.