KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has upheld the life term handed down by the trial court to a man for killing an employee of the Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (Suparco) during an attempted robbery in 2016.

A two-judge bench of the SHC headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha dismissed an appeal of the convict against the judgement of the trial court and also turned down a revision application of the complainant party seeking enhancement of the sentence.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Ali Hassan to life in jail for killing driver Mohammad Idress and wounding security guard Faisal Abbas of Suparco for resisting a cash-snatching bid near the Suparco office building when they were returning with over Rs600,000 withdrawn from a bank on Sharea Faisal in July 2016.

The convict through his lawyer challenged the conviction order before the SHC while the complainant also approached the high court, seeking enhancement of the awarded sentence.

Appellant had killed a Suparco employee when he resisted a robbery bid in 2016

After hearing arguments and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the division bench maintained the order of the trial court and dismissed both peals.

The bench in its order said that in the face of reliable and confidence inspiring evidence of eyewitnesses and other corroborative evidence, the prosecution proved its case against the appellant for being involved in the attempted robbery and murder.

About the defence plea of the appellant that he was going to hospital when caught in the crossfire and implicated in the case, it observed that the convict had admitted his presence at the crime scene and also sustained three firearm injuries fired by the trained security guard and not hit by any stray shot.

The appellant also did not give evidence under oath to disprove the case of the prosecution and remained unable to produce any evidence about his checkup at a hospital, it added.

Regarding revision application for the enhancement of the sentence, the bench said the trial court had rightly sentenced to the appellant to the life term instead of death penalty on mitigating circumstances as it could not sure whether the appellant or his absconding accomplices fired the fatal shot which lead to the death of the victim.

According to the prosecution, the driver and security guard along with an official of the finance department of Suparco, who was also the complainant in the case, were returning to the office after withdrawing money. Three armed men on two motorcyclists intercepted them and opened fire because the driver tried to speed away the vehicle while the security guard also retaliated that left the appellant wounded and his two accomplices managed to flee the crime scene.

In the exchange of fire, the driver was killed while the guard sustained injuries, it added.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2021