LAHORE: Citing weak investigation, the Lahore High Court on Thursday acquitted six people, including a woman, who were awarded death sentence and life imprisonment by the trail courts in two cases.

In the first case, Samina Iqbal, a mother of three, was awarded death sentence by the additional district and sessions judge in 2015, for allegedly killing her mother-in-law in 2014 in Mitha Tiwana (Khushab) police precincts.

The woman was accused of axing her mother-in-law Sultan Bibi to death in 2014. And a case was registered on the complaint of victim`s son Abdul Rehman.

The woman had challenged her conviction in the LHC and a twomember bench head by Justice Sadagat Ali Khan was constituted to hear her appeal.

During the hearing, her counsel Usman Naseem argued that police had failed to establish the presence of eyewitness and the role of eyewitness was suspicious.

He pointed that the trail court had convicted the woman just on recovering murder weapon (axe) from her custody and even the prosecution did not submit the murder weapon recovery report.

He said no one could besentenced only on recovery of murder weapon from his or her possession.

He pleaded the court to set aside the conviction and acquit her client.

The deputy prosecutor general told the court that the convict had [allegedly] axed her mother-in-law to death and threw her body on electricity wires to show it electrocution.

He said the trail court had convicted the suspect in the light of strong evidences and on eyewitnesses`account.

He pleaded before the court to discharge the appeal of the convict.

The court acquitted the woman by noticing loopholes in the investigation.

In another appeal, the court acquitted five men who were sentenced to death and life imprisonment by the trail court.

A two-member bench headedbyJusdceSadagat Ali Khan heard their appeals.

Naeem was arrested by Kahna police in 2010 for shooting Mumtaz Ali over robbery resistance and submitted the challan to the trail court.

A Lahore sessions court had sentenced Naeem to death and four others Allah Ditta, Safeer, Mashooq Ali and Shafiq to life term.

The court, af ter hearing arguments from both sides and analysing the record, acquitted all five men on the grounds of poor investigation.