' This case has its peculiar features.
2. One Ameer son of Sher Muhammad was murdered at his cattleshed at about 4-30 a.m. On 14-7- 1992.
3. One Qaim son of Shahmad (the present petitioner) reached the police station and lodged the F.I.R. With respect to the said murder which F.I.R. Was recorded at about 8-30 a.m. The same day.
The claim of Qaim Din petitioner through this F.I.R. Was that about seven years prior to the present occurrence, one Sher who was the father of Ameer deceased of the present case was murdered by one Qaim son of Ameer Kharal and others; that the said Qaim was the paternal-cousin of one Sikandar; that to avenge the murder of the said Sher deceased, one Rajab, a son of Qaim petitioner/informant murdered one Mian Khan who used to help the accused persons of Sher's murder; that this rift between the said two parties continued till the people of locality affected a compromise between the said parties; that despite this compromise, the aforesaid Sikandar who was not himself an accused person of the said murder of Sher but was a cousin of one ()aim who was one such accused person, did not accept the said compromise and used to keep quarrelling with Ameer deceased of the present case who was the son of the above-said Sher deceased.
Qaim petitioner/informant had added that at about 4-30 a.m. On the day of occurrence he, one Faiz and one Ameer son of Daim were sitting with Ameer deceased at the cattleshed of the said deceased when three persons namely, Sikandar abovementioned, Daulat and Muhammad, all armed with guns, reached there and after raising a Lalkara that they had come to avenge the murder of Mian Khan, opened the assault as a result of which the said Ameer deceased died at the spot.
4. After recording this F.I.R., Sarfraz Khan, S.I. Reached the spot at 9-05 a.m. i,e, within 35 minutes of the recording of the said F.I.R. Where he was asked by Qaim petitioner/informant and his associates to immediately despatch the dead body for post-mortem examination and to arrest the nominated accused persons forthwith on the pretext that the said accused persons might run away. It is recorded in the very first Zimini of this Police Officer that within a couple of minutes of his arrival at the place of occurrence, a number of persons including females and the near-ones of Ameer deceased started raising hue and cry and claimed that the murder of Ameer deceased had been committed by Qaim petitioner/informant and others and that Qaim petitioner had thereafter, as a result of his planning and to save his skin and those of his collaborators, managed to lodge the F.I.R. And had falsely nominated the three accused persons in the said F.I.R.
5. The said Police Officer then recorded the statement of Nazir who was a real brother of Ameer deceased who claimed that Qaim petitioner was one of the eye-witnesses of the murder of the abovementioned Sher who had been murdered by Shahadat and others; that Qaim petitioner's son Rajab had not killed Mian Khan deceased abovementioned for the purposes of taking revenge of the said Sher's murder but on account of the fact that the said Mian Khan had developed illicit liaison with a cousin of the said Rajab; that thereafter Qaim petitioner and Rajab started claiming help and the expenses of their defence against Mian Khan's murder on the ground that they had murdered Mian Khan for taking revenge of Sher's murder; that Nazir and Ameer deceased took up the plea that the said Mian Khan deceased had nothing to do with the murder of their father Sher deceased and, therefore, Qaim petitioner and his son etc. Had killed Mian Khan to settle their own score and Nazir and Ameer deceased were not responsible for bearing the expenses for their defence in this murder case; that on account of Qaim petitioner/informant's son's involvement in Mian Khan's case which Mian Khan was first cousin of one Shahadat who was the main accused in the above murder case of Sher, Qaim petitioner and his son entered into a compromise with the said Shahadat as a result of which the murderers of Sher and the murderers of Mian Khan i,e, Rajab, the son of Qaim petitioner were acquitted. Nazir had further added that thereafter Qaim petitioner etc. Forcibly took possession of half a square of land of Ameer deceased and a dispute thus cropped up to retrieve the said land. He had alleged that it was on this account that Qaim, his brother Muhammad Ali, his two sons, namely, Noor and Rajab and a son of Muhammad Ali, namely, Munir had conspired and had killed Ameer deceased. He had further disclosed that after having killed Ameer deceased, Qaim petitioner and his co-accused harassed other members of the family of Ameer deceased and restrained them from approaching the police for lodging the F.I.R., by confining them in the Kotha of the said deceased and it was only on the arrival of the police in the village that they had managed to come out of the said Kotha to report the actual facts about the occurrence in question.
6. Having been thus apprised of Nazir's version of the murder of Ameer deceased which Nazir was a real brother of the said deceased, Sarfraz investigating the present murder from this angle also had finally found that Qaim petitioner's story regarding the murder of Ameer deceased, as narrated by him through F.I.R. Of the present case, was false and that it was Qaim petitioner and his associates who were in fact the real culprits of Ameer's murder. Feeling dissatisfied with the findings of Sarfraz Khan, Qaim petitioner party got the investigation transferred to the D.S.P., City of Okara but he also concurred with the findings of Sarfraz,
7. This is how Qaim Din petitioner who was the complainant of Ameer's murder came to be involved in the said murder and this is how Muhammad Ali and Qaim petitioners are in custody and now seek their release on bail.
8. The learned counsel for the petitioners has argued that there are two versions of the occurrence in question and the case against the petitioners is thus one of further inquiry. He added that even according to the version given by Nazir, a brother of Ameer deceased, Qaim petitioner had been saddled only with firing in the air after the murder of Ameer deceased while his brother Muhammad Ali petitioner, who was allegedly armed with a Sota only, had been burdened with brandishing the said Sota after the said murder. The learned counsel adds that no recovery of any weapons of offence stands effected from any of the two petitioners. Further contends that even according to the present prosecution version, net had been thrown a little too wide.
9. I would have been reluctant to make any detailed examination of the two versions but the detailed submissions made by the learned counsel have left me no option but to enter the said arena for the purpose of, at least prima facie, assessment of these two stories to determine the grant of bail or otherwise to the two petitioners.
10. Qaim petitioner was an eye-witness of Sher's murder. Qaim petitioner's son Rajab, Qaim petitioner's brother and present co-accused Muhammad, one Shaukat and a nephew of Qaim petitioner had got accused of the murder of Mian Khan on account of the said Mian Khan having developed illicit liaison with Qaim petitioner's- niece. Mian Khan deceased was the first cousin of one Shahadat who was the main accused of Sher's murder. To 'save his son, his brother and his nephew, Qaim petitioner entered into a compromise with Shahadat who was an accused person of the murder of the father of Ameer deceased and thus the accused persons of both these murders i,e, the murderers of the father of the present deceased and the murderers of Mian Khan got acquitted. This fact is not being, denied by the petitioners.
11. Having compromised with the murders of the father of the present deceased to save his own blood, Qaim petitioner could not reasonably be believed to be a sympathiser and a well-wisher of Ameer deceased. It was also claimed by Nazir P.W., a brother of Ameer deceased, that Qaim petitioner etc. Had forcibly taken over their half a square of land and Ameer deceased etc. Were making efforts to retrieve the same.
12. Qaim petitioner's version of Ameer Ali's murder thus appears to be infirm and unreliable, at least for the present, and in view of the facts and reasons, above noticed, the version put forward by Nazir, a real brother of Ameer deceased, inspires confidence.
13. It is true that only firing in the air is attributed to Qaim petitioner but the fact that he was the one who went to the police station and lodged a false F.I.R. To screen the real offenders of the murder of Ameer deceased by falsely implicating his own enemies demonstrates the conspiracy and the premaditation which Qaim petitioner and others had done in respect of Ameer's murder. Similar is the position of Muhammad All petitioner who is a uterine brother and also a cousin of Qaim petitioner as their fathers were real brothers. He is not attributed any injury to the deceased but the harassm ent allegedly caused to the family members of the deceased and their confinement in the Kotha of Ameer deceased could not have been the task of one person. The proverbial wide throwing of the net is not applicable in the present case.
14. In this view of the matter, I find no merit in this petition which is accordingly dismissed but it is, however, observed that nothing stated in this order shall prejudice or influence any Court in the matter of trial.