KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Friday sentenced a man to death on charges of kidnapping and killing a seven-year-old boy.

The court found Mohammad Munir guilty of kidnapping the son of a poultry dealer for ransom and killing him in Oct 2012 in the Buffer Zone area. He was handed down capital punishment on two counts.

The judge of the ATC-II also sentenced co-accused Jalal to life imprisonment for keeping the victim in his captivity before the murder.

The court also ordered confiscation of convict Munir’s property and after selling it out the money would be handed over to the legal heirs of the victim.

The victim was also allegedly subjected to a sexual assault by one of the accused but it was not established since investigation officer Akhtar Jawad had submitted in the trial court that samples were not sent for a DNA test for a lack of financial resources.

The court had issued him a show-cause notice.

The court in its verdict observed that both accused had recorded their confessional statements before a judicial magistrate and they also led a police team to a place where the body was recovered.

The call data record further strengthened the case of the prosecution while a SIM card used for making a ransom call was also recovered from the custody of the accused and the case stood proved against them beyond a shadow of a doubt, it concluded.

According to the prosecution, the main accused abducted the boy on Oct 31, 2012 and demanded a ransom of Rs50,000 for his release. The co-accused kept the victim at a farmhouse in Gharo. Later, accused Munir killed the child at a deserted place in Gadani. The police arrested the accused on Nov 9, 2012 and recovered the body on a lead given by them, it added.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365-A (kidnapping for extorting property, etc.), 364-A (kidnapping a person under the age of ten years) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on the complaint of the deceased’s father at the Gabol Town police station. The court ruled the capital punishment was subject to confirmation of the high court.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2014