A model court on Tuesday sentenced a street criminal to 20 years’ imprisonment and his accomplice to 14 years’ imprisonment for killing a citizen during a botched robbery.
Waqar Ali alias Buntoo and Sikandar alias Bubloo were found guilty of committing murder of Imad-ul-Islam for putting up resistance during a robbery bid outside his house in the Lines Area in December 2018.
Additional Sessions Judge Aziz Ur Rehman Junejo of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) observed that the prosecution succeeded in bringing home the guilt of both accused persons. In addition to the prison term, the judge ordered the convicts to pay Rs500,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the victim or undergo additional six-month imprisonment on default.
Waqar Ali was awarded 10-year imprisonment with a Rs50,000 fine for possession of an unlicensed pistol. In his detailed order, the judge noted that there were strong mitigating circumstances for not awarding death penalty or life imprisonment to both the accused.
He said that the investigation officer failed to submit an application before the relevant judicial magistrate for recording the confessional statement of accused Waqar as he being over confident relied upon the evidence collected by him during investigation. The judge observed that although accused Sikandar had been identified by an independent eyewitness, the IO failed to collect further evidence with respect to his presence by collecting his call data record and geo-fencing report of the place of occurrence.
“Needless to mention that investigation officer is required to take all necessary measures for collecting the best evidence during investigation in order to unearth the truth; however, the investigation officer deliberately avoided the same and the benefit of his failure attributed in creating the mitigating circumstances resulting into sentencing the accused persons with lesser punishment,” he noted. Admittedly, the judge went on, the presence of the element of sudden altercation without any prior intention may also not be ruled out, making further ground for the availability of mitigating circumstances.
According to state prosecutor Pervez Ahmed Qureshi, on December 28, 2018, both the accused persons on a motorcycle attempted to snatch a mobile phone from the victim outside his house near K-E Chowk, Jacob Line Housing Complex, Lines Area. Upon resistance, the accused in the furtherance of their common intention fired shots at the victim, as a result which he died.
The prosecutor said the Brigade police had arrested Waqar over possession of an unlicensed 9mm pistol on Feb 26, 2020. During interrogation, he had confessed killing Imad along with his accomplice Sikandar. On June 14 2021, the court had awarded life term to Waqar and acquitted accused Sikandar. However, the SHC ordered a trial de novo of
the accused after Waqar challenged his conviction.