KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has commuted the death sentence of four convicts to life in prison in a case pertaining to rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

The two-judge bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha observed that the prosecution had established its case against the appellants, but it was based solely on circumstantial evidence which needed to be considered with great deal of caution especially in case of capital punishment.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Syed Altaf Hussain Shah, his two sons Syed Haider Ali Shah and Syed Arif Shah and their neighbour Shahid Mehmood to death in June 2019 for killing the seven-year-old girl after subjecting her to criminal assault at the house of Altaf Shah and his sons, who were close relatives of the victim, in August 2018 in Bhittaiabad.

The prosecution said that Altaf Shah was a paternal uncle of the victim and one of her cousins Arif was also her brother-in-law and the victim girl, originally hailing from a village located on the outskirts of Lahore, was residing with her elder sister, wife of Arif, after the death of her father.

The convicts through their counsel challenged the trial court’s order before the high court and after hearing both sides and examining the evidence, the bench commuted the capital penalty to life in jail.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2021