KARACHI, Feb 9: A district and sessions court on Wednesday convicted four men in two robbery cases, but one of them managed to escape from the court premises before the pronouncement of the verdict.

The four men — Karam Ali, Mohammad Shafiq, Naeem alias TT and Saleem Burney — were found guilty of robbing a house within the remit of the Ibrahim Hyderi police station in March 2010 and were sentenced to four years in prison.

Excluding Burney, the court also found the remaining three men guilty of robbing another house in Ibrahim Hyderi in April 2010 and handed down another four-year imprisonment to them.

District and Sessions Judge (Malir) Syed Kausar Ali Bukhari pronounced the verdicts after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 in each offence and in case of non-payment the convicts would have to undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

One of the accused, Saleem Burney, was on bail and he appeared in court on Wednesday, but escaped from the courtroom when the judge was about to announce his verdict.

The remaining three accused were brought in court from prison and they were remanded back to jail along with their conviction warrants to serve out the remainder of their sentences.

The court also issued a warrant for the arrest of the escapee and put the surety on notice. The court directed the police to arrest the accused and shift him to prison to serve out the sentence.

According to the prosecution, on March 5, 2010, armed men broke into the house of Abdullah Bhatti in the Ibrahim Hyderi area and deprived his family of cash, jewellery and other valuables.

In the second case, the accused robbed the house of Sajid Hussain on April 3, 2010.

The prosecution said that accused Saleem was involved only in the first case.

Three accused were arrested on April 9 within the remit of the Zaman Town police station after an encounter. Later, the police also managed to arrest Saleem. However, he was released on bail. Two cases (FIR Nos 109/10 & 153/10) were registered under Sections 395 (punishment for dacoity) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaints of victims.