UMERKOT, April 16: The additional district and sessions judge of Umerkot sentenced a man to life imprisonment on Tuesday and fined him Rs200,000 after the prosecution proved the case of abduction, sexual assault and murder of a teenage rickshaw driver, Abdul Rehman Rahimoo, in 2007.

According to court sources, Jumoo Rahimoo, father of Abdul Rehman, had registered a case in 2007 at the police station of Umerkot against three persons, Ghulam Haider Samejo, Dhani Bux Malkani and Ahmed Nohri, for kidnapping and killing of his son after sexual assault during the Arbab Ghulam Rahim government.

Arbab Ali Samjo, cousin of accused Ghulam Haider Samejo, told Dawn that his cousin was innocent and the real accused had forced him to confess to the crime which he had not done.

He said accused Dhani Bux and Ahmed Ali Nohri had paid Rs3 million to the victim’s family. Later, they demanded Rs1.5 million from the father of Ghulam Haider Samejo, but being a poor man, he was unable to pay the hefty amount.

He said that after the arrest of all the three accused, Jumoo Rahimoo had been heard saying that his son had been killed by Dhani Bux and Ahmed Ali Nohri, but Ghulam Haider Samejo had been made an scapegoat.

He said that due to political pressure of then Sindh CM Arbab Ghulam Rahim, police were trying to save the real culprits.