LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge on Tuesday sentenced to death a woman for killing an aspiring model, Abeera, through poisoning when the deceased had refused to help kill convict’s former husband.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Ayesha Rasheed announced the verdict in the presence of convict Azma Rao, alias Tooba, and also imposed a fine of Rs500,000 on her. However, the judge acquitted two other suspects — Farooq Rehman and Hakeem Zeeshan — of the charges giving them the benefit of the doubt.

The prosecution stated that Tooba wanted to kill her former husband, Babar Javed Butt, with the help of Abeera. It said the deceased first agreed to join the murder plot but later stepped back, which made Tooba angry.

Tooba considered her former husband responsible for the death of their two-month-old daughter. Abeera had met Tooba to seek her help in pursuing a career in fashion modeling. The convict had poisoned Abeera to death in 2014.

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2018