IFTIKHAR HUSSAIN CHAUDHARY, J. -Petitioner is accused in case FIR No. 408, dated 28-9-1996 for offence under section 18 of the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979, P.S. Lundianwala, District Faisalabad.
2. According to the complainant, his daughter Mst. Shagufta Babi aged 17/18 years entered into a sugar-cane crop to answer the call of nature. She was followed by Asghar Ali and Muhammad Rafiq, carrying a shot gun, stood guard outside the sugar cane field. Mst. Shagufta Bibi started raising alarm when the complainant and others rushed to the spot and found that Asghar Ali had made Mst. Shagufta Bibi naked and was trying to commit sexual inter-course with her forcibly. The accused fled from the spot brandishing a carbine.
3. Learned counsel for the petitioner Submitted that the case against the petitioner was totally false and was result of enmity between the parties. It was contended that the case was registered on 28-9-1996 and the date of occurrence has been given one month prior to making of report whereas Mst. Shagufta filed W.P. No. 7303/96 in this Court for issuance of a direction to SHO to register a case in the matter and the date of occurrence has been given therein as 17-6-1996, which was sufficient to cast doubt 0n the prosecution case. It was also argued that in June the sugar-cane crop is not that high to conceal a person sitting or lying therein. It was also argued that even if the facts given in the FIR were admitted, it was yet to be determined whether it was a case of an attempt to commit zina or was a case of outraging of modesty of a woman. Learned counsel for the complainant opposed the grant of bail to the petitioner and submitted that the petitioner had followed a young girl and had tried to commit rape and the victim was made naked in the process and as such it was a case ofn attempt to commit zina which entailed a sentence of more than ten years and the petitioner did not deserve concession of bail.
4. According to FIR, the occurrence took place in the last week of August, 1996 whereas in the writ petition filed by Mst. Shagufta, the prosecutrix, it was stated that the occurrence took place in June, 1996. The weapon of offence having been used by assailant is also different in. The versions contained in the writ petition and the FIR. It is a matter of common knowledge that sugar-cane crop is not that high in the month of June as to conceal a grown up person. The over-view of the case makes case of the petitioner as that of further inquiry. He is allowed bail in the sum of Rs.
30,0007- (Thirty thousand) with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of Judicial/Area Magistrate of Police Station concerned.