PESHAWAR, Nov 6: The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the capital punishment awarded to a petitioner by a trial court for killing a former inspector-general of police. A two-member bench, comprising Justice Nazim Hussain Siddiqui and Justice Falak Sher, observed that the prosecution had proved its case beyond doubt. It observed that petitioner Mussarat Khan was caught red-handed after killing Mohammad Yousaf Orakzai, the former IGP.

Dismissing Mussarat Khan’s leave-to-appeal petition, the bench observed that there was no ground on which he could be provided relief.

A resident of Regi locality, the petitioner had killed Mr Orakzai on Oct 11, 1999 on University Road. He was captured by a policeman while trying to flee the place of occurrence. The motive behind the murder was a decades old land dispute between the inhabitants of Regi and the Orakzai tribesmen.

Mussarat Khan was sentenced to death and fined Rs300,000 by an additional district and sessions judge on July 15, 2000. A two- member bench of the Peshawar High Court dismissed his appeal and upheld the conviction on Nov 6, 2002.

APPEAL DISMISSED: The Peshawar High Court dismissed an appeal and upheld the life sentence awarded to the appellant in a murder case.