Four men sentenced to death in two boys’ kidnap, murder, rape cases

An anti-terrorism court has sentenced four men to death on charges of kidnapping for ransom and murder of two minor boys.

Muhammad Qurban alias Irfan, Muhammad Imran alias Mann, Waseem Khan alias Waheed Pathan, Muhammad Ramzan alias Babu Odh were found guilty of kidnapping for ransom Muhammad Shahbaz and Muhammad Hassan – aged 8 to 10 years – and later murdering them in September 2016. They were also convicted for sexually abusing one of the victims.

The ATC-VII judge, who conducted the trial in the judicial complex inside the central jail, pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides. He ruled that the accused persons in furtherance of their common intention abducted the minors, demanded a ransom of Rs50,000 and later committed their murder after sodomising one of them.

The judge sentenced the four convicts to death for offences punishable under sections 302 (murder), 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997.

“These convicts shall be hanged by neck till their death subject to confirmation by the High Court of Sindh,” he said, ordering them to pay Rs2 million each as compensation to the legal heirs of the victims.

The judge sentenced the four men to rigorous imprisonment for life for committing sodomy. They were told to pay a fine of Rs50,000 each or undergo two more months of imprisonment on default.

The judge extended the benefit of Section 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) to the convicts, meaning the period of detention since their arrest would be counted towards their prison term. He put the case against two absconding accused Raju Odh and Shakoor Odh on dormant file until their arrest of surrender.

According to the prosecution, on September 11, 2016, the accused abducted for ransom Hassan and Shehbaz while they were playing outside the former’s house. Next day, their bodies were found with severe head injuries, it said, adding that the accused subjected one of the victims to sexual abuse before killing them.

In their statements recorded under Section 342 of the CrPC, the accused persons denied the allegations. Two separate FIRs were lodged at the Sohrab Goth and SITE Superhighway police stations on the complaint of the boys’ parents.