ISLAMABAD
The Supreme Court of Pakistan has acquitted Fazal Mahmood, who had been sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly killing a student at a seminary in Karachi, granting him the benefit of doubt.
The verdict, authored by Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, was delivered by a three-member bench comprising Justice Athar Minallah, Justice Irfan Saadat Khan, and Justice Malik Shahzad Ahmad Khan. According to the written judgment published on the Supreme Court’s website, the case was registered in 2015.
The FIR stated that a student, Raziullah, was found dead in a seminary room, allegedly struck on the head with a cement block. Fazal Mahmood, who was missing from the scene, was nominated as a suspect on suspicion.
In 2019, a sessions court sentenced him to death, a punishment later converted to life imprisonment by the Sindh High Court.
During proceedings before the Supreme Court, defense counsel Ambreen Anwar Raja argued that the case was entirely circumstantial, with no eyewitnesses. She said the allegation was based on the weak last seen together evidence, while the CCTV footage was unreliable lacking a forensic report, showing no clear visuals, and being corrupted by a computer virus.
Additional Prosecutor General Sindh Khadim Hussain contended that the accused lived in the same room as the deceased and his disappearance after the incident indicated guilt. The apex court, however, held that the case was purely circumstantial, the last seen evidence was weak, the CCTV footage incomplete and unreliable, and the recovered knife unrelated to the medical evidence.
The court also noted that the motive was unproven. Finding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, the court acquitted Fazal Mahmood and ordered his immediate release if not wanted in any other case. The co-accused, Abu Bakar’s criminal petition, was dismissed as infructuous.
