PESHAWAR: A local court has convicted a man for desecration of the Holy Quran and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The additional sessions judge, Mirza Mohammad Kashif, pronounced that in the light of overwhelming evidence produced at trial, consistent testimony given by prosecution witnesses and failure of the accused to prove any defence plea led the court to the conclusion that the prosecution case was proven beyond shadow of any reasonable doubt.

The judge ruled that the accused was held guilty of offence of defiling etc of the Holy Quran, which was breach of Section 295 (B) of Pakistan Penal Code.

While sentencing him to life imprisonment, the court extended him benefit of Section 382-B of Code of Criminal Procedure under which his pre-conviction period of detention would be counted in his prison term.

The FIR of the occurrencewasregistered at Pishtakhara police station on March 9, 2022, wherein an inhabitant of the area named Asim Khalil was the complainant.

The complainant reported to police in presence of a mob that he was present at a mosque in the evening when the accused picked a copy of the Holy Quran and took it to the ablution area. He claimed that the accused started desecration of the Holy Quran and when he tried to stop him he started altercation with him.

Shehzad Ahmad, the assistant public prosecutor, argued that the accused was directly charged in the FIR and was caught red-handed at the time of commission of the offence.

He said that besides production of independent witnesses to establish crime of the accused, prosecution also recorded testimonies of credible investigation team.

The defence counsel contended that the accused was innocent and had falsely been charged for the commission of the offence. He said that the accused was charged for the offence with malafide intentions as the complainant had some previous grudges against him.

The court observed that although the accused facing trial did not confess to his guilt either before the judicial magistrate or even before the trial court, yet sufficient independent evidence in shape of deposition by complainant and eyewitnesses of the incident was available on record to connect him with the commission of the offence.

The judge observed that there was nothing on record which could negate or even create doubt in prosecution version rather entire evidence so tendered remained unobjected.