KARACHI: A sessions court on Friday sentenced two brothers to life imprisonment in a 2001 robbery-cum-murder case.

The court found the two brothers, Muhammad Shafi and Fida Hussain, guilty of stabbing Nayyar Sultana to death at her house in PECHS where they committed a robbery.

The court also directed the convicts to pay Rs100,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased and in case of default they would have to undergo an additional one-year imprisonment.

IVth Additional District and Sessions Judge (east) Sanaullah Khan Ghori pronounced his verdict after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court observed in its verdict that there was no eyewitness in the case and the evidence against the accused persons were of circumstantial nature comprising recovery of the blood-stained clothes of accused Shafi and stolen gold jewellery from his possession.

During the interrogation, the accused persons also confessed to their involvement in the killing of the deceased woman and looting her jewellery. Besides, accused Shafi Mohammad also recorded his confessional statement under Section 164 of the criminal procedure code before a judicial magistrate, it added.

The judge recalled the confessional statement of accused Shafi who had confessed that he and his brother were labourers and went to a bungalow in PECHS to commit a robbery. At the bungalow, they asked a woman, who was present there, that they wanted to measure the floor [of her house] and she allowed them to enter. The accused admitted that his brother, Fida, caught the woman and he stabbed her with a sharp knife and fled the place of incident after looting jewellery and cash.

The verdict said that the stolen jewellery was found in the possession of accused Shafi at the time of his arrest and his counsel failed to establish that the same belonged to him or his brother.

It said that in his confessional statement, accused Shafi stated in detail that how he had committed the crime along with his brother/co-accused and it was undisputedly corroborated with the evidence of the witnesses and the post-mortem report, it added.“After evaluation of whole evidence available on record and keeping the facts and circumstances in view, I am of the firm opinion that the prosecution has succeeded in bringing the guilty of accused persons at home regarding the murder of deceased lady”, the judge concluded.

The court also found the convicts guilty of committing the robbery and handed down three-year imprisonment each.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on each convict and in case of non-payment, they would suffer an additional there-month imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, the accused entered the house of complainant Mohiuddin Zakai in PECHS Block 2 on April 4, 2001 and stabbed his wife to death during robbery.

The accused persons, who were labourer by profession, were working in the house for the last few days prior to the incident, it added.

The police arrested Mohammad Shafi on April 12, 2001 in Multan while his brother was arrested on April 16, 2001 in Manzoor Colony on a lead given by the arrested accused.

A case (FIR 356/2001) was registered under Sections 302, 392 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code and Section 17(4) Offences against Property (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979 at the Ferozabad police station.

In his final arguments, the public prosecutor, Younis Baloch, said that the ocular and circumstantial evidence came up on record had proved the guilt of the accused persons in the crime.

He maintained that the prosecution had proved its case beyond a shadow of a doubt. He sought capital punishment for both the accused.

However, the defence counsel argued that the accused persons were framed in the case as there was a dispute over payment of labour charges between them and the complainant.He maintained that all the recoveries had been foisted upon the accused and the confessional statement of accused Shafi was recorded under duress by police.

He said that that there were glaring contradictions in the statements of the prosecution witnesses and prayed to the court to acquit his clients.

The accused were produced in court and were remanded back to the prison along with their conviction warrants to serve out the remainder of their sentence.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict.

Source: Dawn

Date:6/13/2009