SHC upholds death sentence of man who murdered four members of a family

The Sindh High Court on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of a man who killed four members of a family with whom he had lived as an adopted child for years.

Iftikhar Ahmed alias Badshah had been sentenced to death by an additional district and sessions court (District South) for murdering four persons of the same family and raping girl. He had been handed down other sentences for looting valuable from their residence in the Clifton area.

According to the prosecution, Ahmed killed Khalid Haroon, his wife Aneela, son Danish and daughter Maryum at their flat in Clifton by hitting them with an iron rod on September 8, 2010.

The prosecution said Ahmed also raped Maryum prior to killing her, and looted valuable from the house. The appellant’s counsel said police falsely implicated Ahmed, as there was no eyewitness to the offences and no murder weapon was found on the appellant, who had been arrested 13 days after the incident. He sought acquittal of the appellant while giving him the benefit of the doubt.

The additional prosecutor general submitted that the case was based on the last scene evidence by persons who knew Ahmed well, and that his vehicle was in the vicinity of the place of the incident during its occurrence, and the murder weapon was recovered from the scene. He submitted that DNA of the appellant matched the sample collected from the victim girl and the article stolen from the house was recovered from the possession of the appellant.

A division bench, comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Irshad Ali Shah, observed that evidence starting from the last scene evidence to the recovery of the dead bodies at that flat, the recovery of the stolen items from the house, the DNA test and other reasons proved the prosecution case beyond any reasonable doubt.

It observed that the appellant had murdered four innocent persons in a most brutal manner by hitting them over their heads with an iron bar and completely betrayed their trust as they had for years treated him as a son. It said the convict viciously raped and murdered a young girl with her whole life ahead of her and also callously robbed the household and personal items of the deceased. The court observed that it found the appropriate sentence to be a deterrent one and as such upheld all the sentences.