KARACHI, Dec 15: An anti-terrorism court on Wednesday awarded capital punishment to an accused in a multiple murder and gang-rape case.
Judge Arshad Noor Khan of the ATC-3 also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on accused Riaz Ahmed, who was found 'vicariously liable' for each and every offence committed during the incident.
The crime was committed by a gang of four bandits. The fate of the other accused had already been decided. The case pertains to the murder of a woman, her two young daughters and a son, and their female neighbour on June 11, 1998, in her house at Surjani Town. The four women were also gang-raped by the gang.
Earlier, on July 15, 1999, the then judge of an ATC, Mohammad Javed Alam, had prosecuted three of the four accused for the murder of Shamim, her daughters Shahnaz and Asifa, son Maqsood, and their neighbour Momal.
He had sentenced Amjad Khan alias Amjad Lodhi and Rehan to death and acquitted the third accused Abdul Azeem. Later, the Sindh High Court had set aside the sentence on the appeals of the convicts.
According to prosecution, the gang entered the victims' house at around 2pm with an intention to commit robbery. Momal, who lived in the upper portion of the house with her parents and three siblings as tenants, was brought downstairs by the bandits.
There the bandits raped the four women. Later, they killed the women and the young man by way of strangulation and slitting through their throats. They left the house at around 7:30pm.
Prosecution witness Hoot Khan, father of Momal, was an eye-witness in the case. He informed the court that Riaz had also snatched gold chains from him and Momal.
Hoot Khan duly identified the accused before a judicial magistrate as well as in the trial court. The recovery of gold chains from a jeweller, Zubair, on the lead provided by Riaz proved to be another important piece of evidence against him.
THE JUDGE REMARKED: "After evaluation of all the evidence available on record, it has been emerged out that the present accused was one of the culprits who barged into the house of deceased Mst Shamim Bai and committed the robbery at her house as well as at the house of PW Hoot Khan.
He also snatched gold chain from PW Hoot Khan and his deceased daughter Mst Momal. It has also been established on the basis of evidence available on record that the gold chains were secured by the police on the lead given by the accused from the jeweller shop where he had sold out those chains to PW Zubair.
The chains have also been identified by PW Hoot Khan during the course of identification proceedings of the case property. It is not born out from the evidence as to who was the specific accused who committed the rape and who committed the murder, but being member of the gang of the accused, the responsibility and liability of the present accused could not be shirked out.
He is vicariously liable for each and every offence committed during the course of incident either by him or by his fellow companions. In case the murder of five persons is established against the gang of the accused, each of the accused is equally and vicariously liable for the offence of murder as if he had committed the said murder himself".
