ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Thursday acquitted two men who had been sentenced to death in the kidnapping and murder case of a five-year-old boy in Charsadda, nearly 17 years after the incident.
A three-member bench, headed by Justice Hashim Ali Kakar and comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Ishtiaq Ibrahim, heard the appeals filed by the two convicts, Imtiaz and Naeem, who had been on death row.
The court set aside their convictions due to insufficient and unreliable evidence. Both men had been accused of kidnapping the boy, Inam, for ransom in 2008 and subsequently murdering him.
Initially, the trial court had awarded them the death sentence under the Anti-Terrorism Act. However, the Peshawar High Court later commuted their sentences to life imprisonment. The two men then approached the Supreme Court to challenge the high court’s decision.
During Thursday’s hearing, the apex court ruled that the evidence presented in the case was not strong enough to uphold the convictions. The court observed that in cases where the death penalty or life imprisonment is involved, a cautious and thorough evaluation of evidence is essential.
The judgment noted that no one should be sentenced to death on the basis of weak evidence, particularly when the primary evidence includes a confession that was later retracted.
