Man gets life imprisonment in businessman murder case

KARACHI: A model court on Thursday sentenced a realtor to imprisonment for life on charges of murdering a businessman over a personal dispute.

Sohail Abdul Salam Mughal was found guilty of shooting to death Munawwar Ali within the jurisdiction of the New Town police station in January 2019.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Zahoor Chandio of the Model Criminal Trial (East) ruled that the prosecution had succeeded to bring home the guilt of the accused beyond shadow of any reasonable doubt.

He awarded rigorous imprisonment for life to the convict and ordered him to pay Rs1 million as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased. In case of default on payment of the compensation, the convict shall further undergo additional six-month imprisonment.

“The reason for not awarding death penalty to the accused is that the prosecution has not proved motive of the incident, which create strong mitigating circumstances to award lesser punishment to the accused,” the judge noted.

Besides, he added the convict was more than 60 years old and suffering from various ailments, including cardiac, diabetic, both frozen shoulders, asthma and cataract in his both eyes, as is evident from his medical reports.

State prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti contended that on January 13, 2019, the accused fired shots at Munawwar Ali over a personal dispute. The accused later died during treatment at the Liaquat National Hospital.

On July 10, 2021, the model court handed down death sentence to the accused. He subsequently filed an appeal in the Sindh High Court (SHC) that set aside his conviction and remanded the case back to the court with the direction to decide all pending applications of the accused and then proceed with the matter in accordance with the law.

In compliance with the SHC order, the trial court heard and decided the applications.

In his statement recorded under the Section 342 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the accused denied all the charges and claimed his innocence.

According to the police, the accused believed that the victim had allegedly kept his wife and three daughters in illegal confinement at his residence. However, they said they had not been kidnapped and that the wife along with the daughters had separated from him of her own free will.

An FIR was lodged under the Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code Code at the New Town police station on behalf of the state.