A sessions court in Karachi on Tuesday handed life imprisonment sentence to two persons convicted in the triple-murder of noted artist Ismail Gulgee, his wife and a female house servant.

The court, announcing its decision ten years after the crime, sentenced Ali and Anwar to life in prison and also handed each of them two concurrent sentences of seven years rigorous imprisonment.

Further, Anwar and Ali are separately liable to pay Rs100,000 as compensation to the heirs of each of the three victims.

The internationally-acclaimed artist was killed along with his wife, Zareen, and their maid, Asiya, in their Clifton house on Dec 19, 2007 by their driver, Akram Ali, and servant, Muhammad Anwar.

The murder had been carried out as part of a robbery plan.

The bodies of the victims were found by the artist's son, Amin Guljee, at least three to four days after the crime was committed. Amin lived in an adjoining portion of the house in Boat Basin.

Amin had informed the police that the gate of his parent’s house had been locked for five days and their car was not parked in the parking area. The deceased artist’s son was alarmed over this situation and broke the lock open and got inside only to find his parents and their maidservant murdered.

Meanwhile, Ali and Anwar had gone missing.

Subsequently, a case (FIR No 490/07) was registered under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on Amin's complaint at the Boat Basin police station.

In September 2008, the prosecution had said that Ali, who hailed from Punjab, was hired by the deceased in the first week of December and upon observing the amount of wealth the late artist had in his possession, the accused made a plan to rob him.

Later, Akram invited his friend, Anwar, from Lahore and got him employed as a cook to help him execute his plan.