KARACHI, Jan 15: A sessions court on Saturday sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a murder case.

The court found Haji Khalil Ahmed, Mohammad Intizar and Mohammad Saleem guilty of killing Hafeez-ur-Rahman within the remit of the North Nazimabad police station over a property dispute in January 2005.

The additional district and sessions judge (central), Mohammad Azeem, who conducted the trial, pronounced the verdict after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 each and ordered that it should be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased in compensation. In case of non-payment of the fine, the convicts would undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

According to the verdict, all the witnesses supported the case of the prosecution and they were also subjected to cross-examination at length but the defence side failed to get anything in favour of the accused.

The weapon used in the crime was also recovered from the house of accused Khalil and according to the ballistic report the empty shells found at the place of the incident were fired from the same weapon, it added.

The court in its judgment further observed that, admittedly, there was a property dispute between the accused and the victim, adding that accused Intizar in his confessional statement recorded by a judicial magistrate stated that Khalil called him from Punjab and they along with a third accused committed the offence.

It maintained that the two accused also examined three witnesses in their defence, but their testimonies were not sufficient to save the accused. The medical reports also corroborated the evidence of the prosecution witnesses and the guilt of the accused was established beyond a shadow of a doubt, the verdict said.

The court also held Khalil Ahmed accountable under Section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and sentenced him to three years in prison.

The court ruled that the accused had concealed the crime by lodging a case at the police station concerned in which he stated that the deceased had been killed in his shop during a robbery. The court ruled that both the sentences would run concurrently.

The prosecution said that on Jan 17, 2005 the accused gunned down Hafeez-ur-Rahman at the shop of Khalil in a North Nazimabad area over a quarrel pertaining to property. Later, the accused were arrested.

A case (FIR No.91/2005) was registered against the accused under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 201 and 34 (common intention) of the PPC on a complaint of the victim’s son, who was an officer in Pakistan Army.The accused were brought to the court from prison on Saturday and the court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code and sent them back to prison along with conviction warrants to serve out the remainder of their sentences.—Staff Reporter