HYDERABAD, Dec 13: The judge of the anti-terrorism court, Syed Ali Ashraf Shah, on Friday sentenced Tariq Hafeez Memon to life imprisonment in a kidnapping case.

Memon was awarded the sentence in the kidnapping case of the project director of the provincial health development centre and the man in-charge of the department of medical education, Liaquat Medical University Hospital (LUMHS), Prof Sirajul Haq Sheikh.

He has also been fined Rs50,000 and in case of a default, he would have to serve another six months in prison.

Two of the co-accused, Mohib Pitafi and Maqsood Pitafi, have been exonerated as the police failed to prove charges against them.

In all, 14 witnesses were examined by the court in Memon’s kidnapping case.

A case was lodged at the Hussainabad police station after Prof Sheikh was waylaid by armed gangsters on the Autobahn Road when he was returning from a hotel in his car (AAE-842) after attending a dinner on Sept 11, 2000.

The court later acquitted Mohib Ali Pitafi, Masood Pitafi and Tariq Hafeez Memon in the kidnapping for ransom case of Hans Raj, the son of a mill owner Jeewat Ram, after charges could not be proven against them.

Hans Raj was kidnapped on May 12, 2000 outside his residence in Bhittai Naggar.

Police had claimed that an 11-member gang was involved in the kidnapping of Prof Sheikh and Hans Raj.

The then SSP, Hyderabad, Moazzam Jah Ansari, had told journalists at a press conference on Sept 13 that Prof Sheikh had been recovered in an operation from a bungalow in the Defence area falling under the jurisdiction of the Cantonment police station.

He had said that the same gang had received Rs1.5 million from the family of Hans Raj. Police had identified the gang members as Mushtaque, Maqsood, Zaheer, Anwar, Mureed, Laique, Mohib Ali, Qurban, Asghar and Ali Hassan (all Pitafis by caste) and Tariq Hafeez Memon.