High court sets aside man's conviction for extortion.

PESHAWAR -- The Peshawar High Court has set aside a man's conviction by an anti-terrorism court for demanding extortion money from a local trader at the behest of a banned militant outfit.

Accepting the appeal of Hamdard, a resident of the provincial capital, against his sentence, a bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Abdul Shakoor ruled that the evidence produced by the prosecution had material contradictions and discrepancies that made its case highly doubtful.

It added that the benefit of doubt should have been extended to the appellant, but the trial court didn't appreciate the evidence in its true perspective, so it reached a wrong conclusion to hold him guilty of the offence.

The FIR of the matter was registered by the counter-terrorism department (CTD) on June 22, 2021, on the complaint of Shaheen Muslim Town resident Haji Zubair.

The complainant had said that he had received calls from a certain phone number about demand for Rs5 million extortion.

Declares evidence produced by prosecution has discrepancies

He had added that the caller claimed that he was a member of the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and in case of failure, his children would be kidnapped and his house would be blown up.

Counsel Azam Khan Chamkani and Khizar Hayat Khazana appeared for the appellant and said that the trial court had convicted their client for extortion on April 20, 2022, and awarded him a total of three years imprisonment and a fine of Rs30,000 on different counts.

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