LHC acquits convict in drug case over weak prosecution evidence

LAHORE (Muhammad Ashfaq) – The Lahore High Court (LHC) has ordered the acquittal of a convict who had been serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence in a case involving the recovery of two kilograms of narcotics. The trial court had earlier sentenced him to nine years in prison.

A two-member bench comprising Justice Farooq Haider and Justice Tariq Nadeem issued a 13-page written verdict on the appeal filed by the convict, Ashfaq.

According to the verdict, Jaranwala police registered a case against Ashfaq in 2022 over the recovery of two kilograms of narcotics. The court held that the prosecution failed to prove the safe chain of custody of the case property and the samples taken from it, as well as their timely dispatch for forensic analysis.

The judgment further stated that even a minor contradiction in a witness’s statement can render the entire testimony doubtful. In the present case, several contradictions were found in the statements of witnesses, from the arrest of the accused to the handling of the case property.

The court observed that narcotics cases require a high standard of evidence to prove allegations, which was lacking in this case.

Declaring the nine-year prison sentence null and void, the LHC accepted the appeal and ordered the immediate release of the convict.