KARACHI: After a marathon trial, a sessions court on Tuesday sentenced two men to life imprisonment for killing legendary artist Ismail Gulgee, his wife and their maid.

The court found the deceased’s driver, Akram Ali, and a servant, Mohammad Anwar, guilty of murdering Gulgee, his wife Zareen Gulgee and maid Asiya in their house in Clifton in December 2007.

Additional district and sessions judge (South) Sarah Junejo also directed the convicts to pay a compensation of Rs100,000 each to the legal heirs of the victims. In case of default, they would have to spend additional six months in prison.

The court also handed down seven years’ term to the convicts for robbing the house of the artist and taking away his car.

Decision comes nearly a decade after killings

The court in its verdict in the triple murder case observed that the case stood proved against both men, but ruled that it was purely based on circumstantial evidence and normally death penalty could not be in the interest of justice in such cases.

Mainly based on the testimonies of last seen witnesses and memo of recovery, the verdict said witness Nafees Ahmed, who had been an employee of Gulgee since 1994, had last met the noted artist at his house. He had deposed that all the victims and the two accused were present there. It said that Amin Gulgee, son of the slain artist, noticed that jewellery, paintings and other articles were also missing and he also supported the contents of a memo prepared after the recovery of stolen articles from the accused.

The court observed that two other witnesses had also seen both the accused when they abandoned the car and took the stolen articles away, while accused Akram also led the police to recover weapons used in the offence (hatchet and club) and his bloodstained clothes. The samples of DNA profile of the victims were found matching with the recovered clothes, it said.

According to the prosecution, the decomposed bodies of the artist, his wife and maid were found in their house on Dec 19, 2007, while the driver and the servant were found missing along with the deceased’s car that was later found abandoned in DHA.

Police had arrested the accused in February 2008 from a hotel near the Cantonment Railway Station and claimed that during interrogation they confessed to having killed the artist, his wife and maid and to robbing the house, it said, adding that police had also recovered the stolen paintings, jewellery and other articles.

The court had provided lawyers to both the accused, who have been behind bars since their arrest, on state expense to defend them after they submitted that they could not engage counsel because of poor financial condition.

Despite being a high-profile case, the court took over nine years to conclude the trial. Court sources said that frequent transfer of the trial judges, unnecessary applications seeking adjournments and delay in the production of witnesses on the part of police were some of the key reasons behind the inordinate delay in disposal of the case.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017