KARACHI: A sessions court found a man guilty of desecrating the Holy Quran in 2021 while working for the Korangi police station, and on Thursday it sentenced him to life in jail.
Shahid Ali Memon, an Additional District and Sessions Judge (East), found the accused guilty and said that the prosecution has established beyond a reasonable doubt the accusation of defiling copies of the Quran, as defined by Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
“Every key witness provided complete support for the case on the offense’s date, time, accused’s arrest, property seizure, etc. To put it another way, it is safe to say that every witness—including the complainant—had affirmed one another. The judge noted that although the knowledgeable defense attorney questioned the witnesses, he was unable to undermine their testimony.
State prosecutor Syed Khursheed Abbas Bukhari claims that the complainant informed the police in June 2021 that he had seen accused Ali Hyder desecrating the pages of the Holy Quran following the Fajr prayer. After then, the complaint brought legal action against the defendant, which resulted in his arrest.
To bolster its case, the prosecution called eight witnesses during the trial. The prosecution claimed that there was sufficient evidence to convict the accused and asked for a conviction.
Conversely, the defense argued that the evidence against the accused was falsified by the prosecution. The prosecution’s witnesses, all locals, had contradicted one another, according to the defense attorney.
The defence also drew attention to the FIR’s inexplicable delay and the fact that no one from the public had gotten in touch with the police via Madadgar 15. The accused first decided to record his statement under oath and to call his father as a defense witness, the court noted. The court did note that later on, the accused and his father both filed declarations indicating that they would no longer be providing sworn testimony.
A case under Section 295-B of the Pakistan Penal Code was filed at the Korangi police station.
