SHC upholds life terms of two convicts in murder case

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday dismissed the appeal of two convicts against their life imprisonment sentences in a murder case. Mohammad Yasir and Mohammad Rashid had been sentenced to life in jail for murdering a man during a scuffle in the Mehmoodabad neighbourhood.

According to the prosecution, complainant Sher Bahadur had lodged an FIR at the Mehmoodabad police station saying that his son Nabeel Khan had complained about being harassed by two people when he was coming home from school on May 20, 2016.

The complainant said that he, his relative Iftikhar Nabeel and a friend Matloob Awan visited the area to inquire about the people who had harassed his son. He said the appellants started abusing him and his son, adding that when he and his companions tried to stop them, they opened fired on them, resulting in wounding Nabeel, who later succumbed to his injuries during treatment at hospital.

The appellants’ counsel said that there were general allegations against the appellants but no specific role had been attributed to any of the appellants. The counsel said the prosecution had failed to provide sufficient evidence to prove the guilt of the appellants.

The additional prosecutor general said the prosecution had proved its case by examining 11 witnesses, including three eyewitnesses, while the appellants had been nominated in the case with their specific roles of firing on the complainant party.

He said that a licenced pistol was also recovered from the house of the appellants in the presence of Mashirs. The father of the deceased had filed an application to change the life sentences of the appellants into death penalties.

After hearing the arguments of the case, an SHC division bench comprising Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Khadim Hussain Tunio said the prosecution had proved its case with regard to the murder of the deceased.

The court, however, said that the prosecution had failed to establish any motive behind the murder of the deceased because a quarrel had taken place between the complainant’s son and the appellants, while the bullet fired by them had hit the deceased instead of the complainant.

The bench said that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellants to the extent of murder but had failed to prove the motive of murder, so the death penalty could not be granted in such circumstances. The court dismissed the appeal of the convicts and maintained their life terms awarded to them by the trial court.