A Christian man charged with blasphemy was given life sentence by a trial court in Gojra the other day, Pakistan Today has learnt.
According to details, Sajjad Masih, a resident of Gojra, was charged under Section 295-C of the country’s blasphemy laws for allegedly sending blasphemous text messages to a local Muslim, Malik Tariq on December 28, 2011. A case [FIR No 820/2011] was subsequently registered against him with the Gojra City Police Station.
On Saturday, Gojra Additional Sessions Judge Mian Shahzad Raza sentenced Sajjad to life imprisonment.
Sajjad’s lawyer Javed Sahotra said that his client had been wrongly implicated in the case by some local Muslims in connivance with the local police.
Sahotra claimed that the police had failed produce any evidence against Sajjad during the trial. “The police investigators did not find the SIM [Subscriber Identity Module] and cell phone from which Sajjad had allegedly sent the blasphemous texts to Malik Tariq. The police also failed to produce any witnesses against the accused,” he said.
Moreover, Sahotra claimed that the case was investigated by junior police officers who were ineligible to probe cases of blasphemy. “Blasphemy cases should be investigated by a SP-rank officer but in this case a sub-inspector had led the investigation,” he said.
Sahotra said that in spite of so many gaps in the investigation and the absence of credible evidence, the trial court judge had shown haste in sentencing Sajjad to life imprisonment.
“We have observed that in blasphemy cases, the trial court judges cave in to pressure from religious groups and convict the accused even if there’s little or no evidence against them,” he said, adding that they will challenge the trial court’s verdict in the Lahore High Court.
“We are confident that the high court will take into account the lacunas in the case investigation and also hold the police investigators responsible for the lapses,” he said.
Efforts were made to contact the Gojra police investigation chief and the case officers but they could not be reached for comment. Sajjad Masih, meanwhile, languishes at the Toba Tek Singh Jail.