The Supreme Court has acquitted three men sentenced to death in a 2014 case pertaining to the burning alive of a Christian couple in Kasur’s Kot Radha Kishan over blasphemy allegations.
On Nov. 4, 2014, a mob of 400-1,000 people had attacked a Christian couple working as laborers at a brick kiln in Kot Radha Kishan over allegations of blasphemy. Reportedly, the mob had dragged out the couple from an office they were sheltering in before torturing them and throwing them into a furnace where they were burned alive. Police attempting to stop the crime were likewise attacked, with the first information report identifying eyewitnesses as relatives who were unable to provide any aid.
A three-member bench led by Justice Shahzad Ahmad Khan and comprising Justices Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Shakeel Ahmed announced the acquittal after overturning the death sentences of all three men by granting them the “benefit of doubt.” The 26-page detailed judgement issued last week also rejected a state appeal against the acquittal of 102 other men in the case.
The acquittal pleas had challenged a May 16, 2019 Lahore High Court verdict upholding the death sentence announced by an Anti-Terrorism Court on Nov. 23, 2016. According to the detailed ruling, the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the petitioners beyond a shadow of doubt. It said the three men should be released from jail immediately if not required in any other case.
The ruling described the incident as “brutal,” but maintained that an “innocent” person cannot be executed in the absence of reliable evidence. Defending its view, the judgment identified contradictions in the prosecution’s case, including the absence of the legal heirs and relatives of the deceased as complainants or signing of the case memos as witnesses.
“These facts suggest that, in fact, eyewitnesses related to the deceased were not present at the spot at the time of occurrence,” read the judgement, adding one of the men acquitted had not been mentioned in the initial FIR. The court found it “unbelievable” that the witnesses would have told the police his name, but it would not have been recorded.
Further, the judgement highlighted a “lack of independent corroboration” for the claims against the petitioners and questioned why none of the acquitted petitioners received burn injuries or were found wearing protective gear necessary to be near the furnace, creating a “reasonable doubt about their involvement.”
Citing the established principle of “benefit of doubt” as a right, it said an accused was entitled to acquittal regardless of the heinousness of the crime if a single circumstance created reasonable doubt about an accused’s guilt. The court similarly also dismissed the state’s petition against the acquittal of the 102 other individuals in the case, citing the lack of any appeal by the legal heirs of the deceased against these acquittals.