KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has set aside the conviction handed down to an appellant by a trial court in a case pertaining to the rape of his underage stepdaughter.

A gender-based violence court had sentenced Sajjad Khan to 10-year imprisonment and also imposed fine in April last year for sexually assaulting her 11-yearold stepdaughter at their house within the remit of the Korangi Industrial Area police station in 2019.

The convict, through his counsel, filed an appeal against his conviction before the SHC and after hearing arguments and examining the record and proceedings, a single-judge bench headed by Jusdce Irshad Ali Shah allowed the appeal and exonerated the appellant.

The bench in its order said that the FIR was lodged after a delay of one day without a plausible explanation while the complainant, mother of victim, was not an eyewitness and her evidence hardly lent support to the case of prosecution.

The DNA report said that the blood samples of the appellant were not matched with the DNA samples of the victim and if this report was taken into consideration, then it absolved the appellant of the allegation, it added.

The bench further said, `In that context, the contention of learned counsel for the appellant that he has been involved in the commission of the incident by the complainant on account of his refusal to divorce her could not lost sight of.

The evidence of investigating of ficer is only related to the investigation, which he conducted in present case, and the same is not enough to improve the case of prosecution, it added.

In these circumstances, it would be safe to conclude thatthe prosecudonhasnot been able to prove the involvement of the appellant in commission of the offence beyond reasonable doubt, it concluded.