' MUHAMMAD NAWAZ ABBASI, J.---The appellant namely Muhammad Ashraf alias Manna was tried for the charge under sections 302, P.P.C. In a case F.I.R. No,3, dated 5-1-1993 registered against him at Police Station Murree for an allegation of committing Qatle-e-Amad of his co-villager namely Muhammad Bashir in the village in the broad daylight. The trial Court having found the appellant guilty of the charge through judgment, dated 26-10-1999 convicted and sentenced him to death with the direction to pay Rs,25,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased' under section 544, Cr.P.C. And in default of the payment of the fine to undergo S.I. For six months.
2. The appellant has challenged his conviction and sentence through the above referred criminal appeal whereas the learned Additional Sessions Judge has sent Murder Reference to the Court under section 374, Cr.P.C. For the confirmation of death sentence under section 302, P.P.C.
3. The case was registered against the appellant through F.I.R. Exh.P.G. On the basis of the complaint Exh.P.D. Lodged by Muhammad Wazir complainant P.W.4 which was recorded by Fazal- ur-Rehman P.W.8 and contained the following facts-- "Muhammad Bashir deceased aged 40 years was an employee as loader in Islamabad and being on leave was present in village. On the fateful day, at 4-00 p.m. Muhammad Bashir alongwith his minor sons namely Muhammad Rafi and Muhammad Shafi was going to the land of one Roshan Khan to collect the woods whereas the complainant in order to purchase the utility articles of daily use was proceeding to the shop of Raza Hussain when Muhammad Ashraf alias Manna, resident of Village Jawa abusing and raising Lalkara that he would teach lesson to Muhammad Bashir for levelling false allegation against him while taking out knife from his Dub inflicted two successive blows with knife on the chest and neck of the deceased who on sustaining injuries breathed his last at the spot.
' The motive behind the occurrence as stated in the F.I.R. Was that about one and a half years ago, Muhammad Ashraf in absence of Muhammad Bashir with an intention to molest Mst. Shaheen, wife of Bashir visited his house during the night but the wife of the deceased reprimanded the appellant and also brought it to the notice of the Brotheri through her husband. Thus, the appellant having nursed grudge against the deceased attacked on him on the fateful day.
4. Muhammad Wazir P.W.4 while proceeding to the Police Station met Fazal-ur-Rehman, S.-I. P.W.8 at a distance of ten miles from the Police Station who after recording the statement of the complainant went for spot inspection and, prepared inquest report Exh.P.J. Of the deceased and sent the dead body to Civil Hospital, Murree under the escort of Police for postmortem examination and collected the blood-stained earth from the spot through a recovery memo. Exh.PE.
Muhammad Ashraaf accused on arrest on 6-1-1993 led to the recovery of blood-stained knife P.4 from the dderted place in the nearby forest on 8-1-1993, which was taken into possession in a sealed parcel through memo. Exh.P.P. The S.-1. Prepared the site plan and on the disclosure of Muhammad Ashraaf recovered his blood-stained clothes Shalwar P.5 and Qameez P.6 from his house which were taken into possession by him through memo. Exh.P.C. The last-worn cloths of the deceased Jersy P.1, Shalwar P.2 and Kameez P.3 were also taken into possession through memo.
Exh.P.A. The S.-I. Got prepared site plans Exh.P.L and Exh.P.L./1 from the Patwari Halqa and on completion of formal investigation submitted the Challan.
5. Muhammad Zafar, Medical Officer P.W.9 during the course of post-mortem examination of Muhammad Bashir traced the following injuries on the dead body:--
(1) An incised wound 2.5 c.m. x skin deep on the back of right chest.
(2) Stab wound 5 cam. x. Bone deep over right clavicle and supra clavicle fossa and ruptured right subclavilan artery were found.
' In the opinion of the doctor, the death was caused due to excessive heamorrhage and irreversible shock leading to cardiopulmonary arrest due to stab wound over right clavicle and supra clavicle fossa leading to rupture of right subclavian artery which was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The injuries were ante-mortem, which caused death with short interval and the time elapased between the death and post-mortem was about nineteen hours.
6. The prosecution in support of the charge produced Mst. Shaheen Bibi, wife of the deceased as P.W.1, who has supported the motive part of the prosecution story as narrated in the statement of Muhammad Wazir P.W.4, Dilawar Hussain, Constable P.W.2 escorted the dead body of Muhammad Bashir for post-mortem examination and also produced the last-worn clothes of the deceased before the S.H.O. He also delivered the sealed parcel of blood-stained knife and earth in the office of Chemical Examiner at Lahore and after collecting the report from the said office handed over the same to the Moharrir A.S.-I. Muhammad Yousaf P.W.3 deposed that Muhammad Ashraaf accused led to the recovery of knife P.4 from a jungle near village Jawa in his presence, which was taken into possession through memo. Exh.P.B., attested by him who also witnessed the recovery of bloodstained clothes of the appellant. Muhammad Wazir P.W.4 and Muhammad Shafi P.W .7 are the eye-witnesses of the occurrence, who have supported the prosecution story in tooth and nail.
P.W.6 Abdul Salm Patwari of the concerned Halqa prepared the site plans on the directions of the S.H.O. And pointation of the P.Ws. Muhammad Shafi P.W.8 is the Investigating Officer whereas Dr. Muhammad Zafar P.W.9 conducted the post-mortem examination on the dead body.
7. The accused in his statement under section 342, Cr.P.C. Denied the charge and pleaded his false implication, due to his friendship with one Muhammad Nazir who was carrying illicit relations with the wife of the deceased. He produced Muhammad Altaf, his real brother in his defence who stated that about one and half years prior ,o the occurrence, one Muhammad Nazir had gone to the house of the deceased without the permission of the inmates whereupon a Jirga was convened and a compromise was effected. He, however, stated that the appellant was substituted to save the skin of real culprit namely Muhammad Javaid.
8. Learned counsel for the appellant pointing out the minor discrepancies and contradictions in the statements of the witnesses contended that the occurrence was unwitnessed and that Syed Galib Hussain, Lambardar of the village had passed an information to the police about the murder before the registration of the case through Ruqqa Exh.P.D. And that except the Lambardar no one was aware of the occurrence till it was reported to me police. He next argued that according to the prosecution, the occurrence took place at 4-30 p.m. Whereas the doctor in his statement has categorically stated that the dead body was brought to him at 4-00 p.m. On the day of occurrence and thus keeping in view the distance of place of occurrence from Civil Hospital, Murree, it can be seen that the time of occurrence was much earlier to that of given by the prosecution. He concluded that in the light of the abovementioned admitted facts, the prosecution story given by the eyewitnesses would highly doubtful and while giving the benefit of doubt to the accused, the charge against him falls to ground. The learned counsel while challenging the recovery of knife and motive part of the story contended that the same being not confidence inspiring has no evidentiary value. He emphasized that the incident relating to the motive took place one and a half years ago and during the intervening period, nothing happened and it was not understandable that why the appellant could commit such an offence after one and a half years. The learned counsel concluded that the motive set up by the prosecution was not proved beyond doubt and therefore, it was not a case of capital punishment.
9. Conversely, the learned counsel representing the' State" has argued that it is a broad daylight occurrence and the witnesses despite being closely related to the deceased are quite independent and natural. He added that the motive was not proved through direct evidence of Mst. Shaheen and similarly the weapon of offence, the blood-stained Chhuri was recovered through the exclusive knowledge of the appellant. He added that the positive report of Chemical Examiner in the light of the injuries on the person of the deceased with sharp-edged weapon would establish the recovery and furnish adequate corroboration to the ocular account.
10. We have heard the learned counsel for the parties at length and perused the record with their assistance. The occurrence in the present case took place in the village at evening time when the deceased in the company of his two sons was busy in collecting the woods for domestic use. The brother of the deceased who is also resident of the same village was present at a grocery shop at some distance near the place of occurrence. The witnesses have categorically stated that the accused while taking out the Chuuri from his Dub-inflicted successive blows on the person of the deceased and this statement of the witnesses was corroborated by the medical evidence. The perusal of the statements of the witnesses would show that they had neither any grievance nor grudge against the appellant and a reasonable interval in the fateful incident and the incident of motive part of the story would not be considered a sufficient source to doubt the truthfulness of prosecution story. The substitution being rare phenomenon, there was no reason to substitute the appellant with the real culprit. The contention of the learned counsel that there being no explanation that how the clothes of the appellant were stained with blood created a reasonable doubt about the taking place of the occurrence as stated by the prosecution. This is noticeable that during the course of inflicting blows with Chhuri to the deceased, the blood would definitely spread and in consequence thereto, the clothes of the appellant were also stained with blood. The eye-witnesses' account being independent, natural and confidence inspiring alone in the given facts was enough to establish the charge against the appellant. However,. The medical evidence as well as the recovery of blood-stained knife at the instance of the appellant with positive report of the Chemical Examiner would further provide a strong corroboration to the ocular account. We, therefore, having scrutinized the evidence in detail confirmed the findings of guilt of the appellant arrived at by the learned trial Court.
11. Consequently, for the foregoing reasons, we while maintaining the conviction of the appellant under section 302(b), P.P.C. Dismissed his appeal. However, in the light of the fact that the prosecution has not brought any evidence on record in proof of immediate cause of occurrence and being not known that what prompted the appellant on the day of occurrence to commit the crime as the incident relating to the motive part of the story mentioned in the F.I.R. And narrated by Mst. Shaheen, wife of the deceased, happened about one and a half years and in the intervening period, the appellant remained peaceful, therefore, the reason for the reaction of the appellant on the fateful day having not known, the immediate cause of murder is shrouded in mystery. Since the parties were inimical to each other, therefore, the possibility of happening something suddenly between the deceased and the appellant before the unfortunate incident being not ruled out. We, while extending the benefit of suspicious circumstances under which the occurrence took place, are of the view that the sentence of life imprisonment will sufficiently meet the ends of justice in the present case. We, therefore, dismiss this appeal with reduction of the sentence of the appellant from death to life imprisonment and also grant him benefit of section 382-B, Cr.P.C. However, the direction for payment of compensation given by the learned trial Court is maintained. The murder reference with the above modification in the conviction and sentence is answered in the negative.