KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Monday handed down death sentence to two men for kidnapping for ransom and murdering a Class-XI student in 2009 during the re-trial of the case conducted for the ‘third’ consecutive time.

Ammar Asad and Arsalan alias Munno were found guilty of kidnapping and killing Sohaib Adil despite payment of Rs500,000 within the jurisdiction of the Ferozabad police station on May 7, 2009.

On Monday, the ATC-XVI judge pronounced his verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge noted that the prosecution successfully proved the charge against the accused.

Thus, the judge handed down death sentence to Asad and Arsalan each on two counts — kidnapping for ransom and murder.

The judge also handed seven-year imprisonment to each convict in a case pertaining to possessing illicit weapon and ordered them to pay Rs30,000 fine.

The judge also appreciated the job rendered by the investigating officer of the case, late Inspector Tahir Naseer, and asked the police authorities to grant him a posthumous award in terms of the Section 27 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997.

On Feb 16, 2015, the ATC-V judge had acquitted co-accused Sikandar but awarded life imprisonment each to Ammar Asad and Arsalan alias Munno.

However, both the convicts challenged their conviction before the Sindh High Court, which remanded back the case to the ATC-XII for re-trial.

However, the trial court sentenced Ammar to 14-year imprisonment and awarded death sentence to Arsalan for committing the murder in the retrial.

As the appellants once again challenged their sentences in the SHC, the high court told the ATC to conduct the retrial from the stage of recording statements of the convicts under Section 342 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Three separate cases were lodged under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 365-A (kidnapping for ransom) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC read with the Section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance at the Anti-Violent Crime Cell police station.

Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2022