KARACHI: An anti-terrorism court (ATC) in Karachi sentenced Shahrukh Jatoi, the main accused in the Shahzeb murder case, to death in its verdict on Friday.
Moreover, another suspect, Siraj Talpur, was also awarded capital punishment for his role in the crime.
Whereas, two other suspects in the case, Sajjad Ali Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were sentenced to life imprisonment.
The ATC also announced that the convicted individuals would have to pay a fine of Rs 500,000 each. Moreover, Jatoi was handed an added three years prison sentence for illegal possession of weapons.
As soon as the judgment was announced, Jatoi's brother got into an argument with judges and had to be taken out of the court's premises.
Due to which, the detailed judgment of the case could not be signed by those convicted and they were sent away. They were, however, called back to the court's premises and asked to sign the judgment.
The convicted individuals were then taken towards central jail.
Later, family members of those convicted said they would file an appeal challenging the court's judgment.
Moreover, Jatoi's lawyer, Shaukat Hussain Zuberi, said he would file an appeal within seven days of today's ruling. Zuberi said the case's investigation was flawed from the very beginning.
A senior advocate, Kamal Azfar, recently filed a petition in the Sindh High Court to revisit the evidence on the weapon from which Jatoi fired at Shahzeb. That petition was also rejected today.
Speaking to DawnNews, Shahzaib's father said he was satisfied with the court's verdict.
Twenty-year-old Shahzeb Khan was gunned down on the night of December 24, 2012 when he was returning home along with his sister after attending a wedding. Shahzeb, son of a DSP, was murdered reportedly after he had an altercation with one of the suspects’ servant who had allegedly given verbal threats to the victim’s sister.
Jatoi, Siraj Talpur, his younger brother Sajjad Talpur and their house servant Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were charged with killing Shahzeb in the city’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA).
The case had attracted much media attention after the Supreme Court took a suo motu notice of the murder.
