Ambala court upholds Pak national’s acquittal order

ISSUING ORDER, COURT REFERS TO SC OBSERVATIONS IN KALLU ALIAS MASIH VS STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

AMBALA: The court of additional sessions judge, Ambala, Sanjay Sandhir has upheld the lower court’s acquittal of a Pakistani national who was accused of spying for Inter-services Intelligence (ISI).

As per the order, the court pronounced the dismissal order filed by the state and observed that the findings of the trial court cannot be reversed merely because any other view is possible, if such a finding is based on evidence.

Issuing the order, the court referred to observations made by the Supreme Court in Kallu alias Masih vs. State of Madhya Pradesh (supra), and said, “….an order of acquittal cannot be interfered by the appellate court, if the judgment of the trial court is based on evidence and the view taken by the trial court is reasonable. The appellate court in an appeal against the judgment of acquittal though is entitled to re-appreciate the evidence and come to an independent conclusion but the same should not be done as a matter of routine…”

His counsel, SK Maken said, “The appellant court has also directed Ali Murtaza not to leave the country during the state’s appeal time to the Punjab and Haryana high court.”

Murtaza, a software engineer, was acquitted of the charges framed against him under Official Secrets and Foreigners Acts by the court of chief judicial magistrate Amberdeep Singh on July 7. The court, while extending benefit of doubt in favour of him, had said the accused has been able to establish his innocence by producing his location history as recorded on Google Timeline Map.

The prosecution has said he was arrested near the Ambala Cantt bus stand by the police on August 14, 2019, post the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, while the defence had argued that he was arrested from Cantt railway station from his berth of Golden Temple Mail when he was travelling from Mumbai to Amritsar, to exit through Atari for Karachi, his hometown.