KARACHI: A model court has awarded life imprisonment to three convicts for murdering a government officer’s son during an armed house burglary.

The accused, Azeem Sarwar, Mohammad Aadil and Mohammad Obaid were found guilty of killing 21-year-old Danish Ahmed in June 2010 in Manzoor Colony within the remit of the Baloch Colony police station.

Additional district and sessions judge Kamran Atta Soomro of the model criminal trial court (South) pronounced his judgement reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge noted that the prosecution had successfully established the charges against the accused persons.

The judge kept the case against alleged absconding suspect Mohammad Adeel Khan, alias 125, dormant till his arrest or surrender.

According to the prosecution, the accused barged into the house of complainant Furqan Ahmed, the then additional director of the City District Government Karachi’s media management department, on June 6, 2010.

It mentioned that four armed robbers entered his house from the rooftop, where his son Danish was sleeping. They tied the complainant with ropes in a washroom and robbed Rs100,000 cash, gold ornaments and other valuables.

The state prosecutor, Arif Sitai, argued that the accused Adil was a class fellow of the deceased, Danish Ahmed, who had identified him during the robbery. Therefore, the accused shot and killed him, he added.

The prosecutor further argued that the complainant, whom the accused persons had also wounded, and other family members had rightly identified them during an identification parade.

On the other hand, the defence counsel — Amir Mansoob Qureshi, Qamar Iqbal, Nadeem Shah and Ali Khan — denied the allegations of the prosecution and claimed that their clients had been framed in the false and fabricated case and pleaded to acquit them.

A case under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 324 (attempted murder), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered at the Baloch Colony police station.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2019