LAHORE: SSP Mufakhar Adeel has filed an appeal in the Lahore High Court challenging his conviction in murder case of his friend Shahbaz Tatla who was an assistant advocate general.
On May 27, a sessions court had sentenced him to life imprisonment while acquitted two other accused Asad Bhatti and Irfan Ali giving them the benefit of doubt.
The trial court had awarded life imprisonment under section 302 (b) (murder) and five-year jail term each under section 365 (abduction) and section 201 (hiding evidence of a crime) of the PPC.
The court also imposed a total fine of Rs450,000 on the convict.
SSP Adeel’s counsel submitted that the police failed to collect any evidence to establish that the former law officer was dead.
He pleaded that the statement of a suspect during police custody had no value in the eye of law as the courts rendered sentences on the basis of evidence only.
Naseerabad police had submitted challan before the court saying the accused persons confessed to their crime.
It said the prime suspect, Adeel, admitted that he disposed of the body of his lawyer friend in a plastic drum filled with acid.
He later got the crime scene (a rented house) washed in order to remove any evidence of his offense with the help of his accomplices.