' On 3-9-1998 Dr. Karim Shah Sherazi laid information at Police Station Noor Shah, District Sahiwal that on 2-9-1998 at about 7-00 p.m. His nephew (sister's son) Ali Haider aged about 5 years wearing Nicker went out of the house to play but did not turn back. He launched a search for him and it was at 8-00 a.m. On 3-9-1998 that they found the dead body of the said child in Gogaira Branch Canal; that there are marks of strangulation on the neck of the child and that some unknown person or persons have murdered the child by strangulation. A case under section 302/34, P.P.C. Was accordingly registered on 3-9-1998 vide F.I.R. No,513 of 1998 at Police Station Noor Shah, District Sahiwal. The petitioner was arrested on 25-11-1999. She filed a bail application which was heard by a learned Additional Sessions Judge, Sahiwal who dismissed the same on 19-4-2000.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that the petitioner is a lady; that she is innocent; that the only evidence against her is of extrajudicial confession; that she is not named in the F.I.R.
Learned counsel for the complainant, on the other hand, opposes the bail application.
3. I have gone through the record brought by the Police Officer. I have already narrated the contents of the F.I.R. Above and the petitioner is not named there. It appears from the record that in the first instance, the said complainant expressed a suspicion against the petitioner, Taqi Shah and Fazal Shah who were her nephews stating that his Murid Ghulam Hussain has informed him that on 2-9-1999 at about 6-30 p.m. He had seen the petitioner with the murdered child. Thereafter on 7- 10-1998 the grandfather of the said child namely, Syed Jafar Hussain Sherazi stated that he had appointed the said child as a Mutwali/Sajjada Nashin after his death and that he as well as his family were of the opinion that in order to avoid the eventuality of the said child taking over the Gaddi and the property attached to it the said persons have killed him. At a later stage Haji Ahmad Ali and Muhammad Salim Ran on 5-10-1998 stated that Taqi Shah had confessed murdering Ali Haider. To my mind the said extra-judicial confession by a co-accused is a very weak piece of evidence. Reference be made to the case of Tayyab Hussain Shah v. The State 2000 SCM R 683. At the moment I have not found anything on the record connecting the petitioner with the said offence. I also find that the said complainant had given an affidavit exonerating the petitioner as well as the other co-accused. Similarly, the person who had stated that he had seen the murdered child with the petitioner on 2-9-1998 has also given an affidavit resiling from the said statement.
Certified copies of these affidavits are on the file of this Criminal Miscellaneous. The petitioner herself does not appear to be beneficiary of the circumstances narrated by the said grandfather of the deceased, namely, Jafar Shah. So far as the seven acres of the land is concerned, which has been put up as a bone of contention suffice it to say that if Jafar Shah himself had not taken any 'proceedings to get back the land given by him to his wife Barkat Bibi it was too remote a possibility that the child had succeeded to get back the land after the death of said Jafar Shah. This is certainly a case of further inquiry, so far as the petitioner is concerned. I, therefore, allow this Criminal Miscellaneous and admit the petitioner to bail subject to her furnishing of bail bonds in the sum of Rs,1,00,000 with two sureties each in the like amount to the satisfaction of the learned trial Court.