Two men jailed for 12 years in murder case

A model court has awarded 12 years of rigorous imprisonment to two men in a five-year-old murder case.

Azan Zafar and Ahmed Khan were found guilty of stabbing Muhammad Zubair to death and dumping his body into a drain within the jurisdiction of the Zaman police station in June 2019.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Zahoor Chandio of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from the prosecution and defence sides.

The judge observed that the prosecution successfully proved its case against both the accused, awarding them 12-year rigorous imprisonment. They were ordered to pay Rs500,000 each as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased and in case of failure to do so, they would have to undergo an additional six-month imprisonment.

The judge however acquitted co-accused Anas Hammad and put the case of absconding accused Muzammil on dormant file till his arrest or surrender.

The court observed that the prosecution had produced sufficient evidence to prove that Zafar used Hammad's mobile phone to call Zubair to his residence and when Zubair reached there, he along with Ahmed and the absconding accomplice murdered Zubair by stabbing him with a knife, and disposed of his dead body in a drain.

The body was later recovered by the investigation officer based on information provided by Ahmed.

State prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti contended that Zubair left his house in Korangi on June 16, 2019 but did not come back home. An FIR regarding his abduction was lodged against Hammad and Zafar, he said, adding that both the accused were subsequently arrested and during the course of investigation, they disclosed the name of their accomplice Khan, on whose pointation, the body of the missing man was recovered from a sewer drain while the weapon was recovered from the house of Zafar.

He argued that all witnesses remained firm in their deposition and corroborated the prosecution case. He said the prosecution successfully proved its case against the accused beyond shadow of reasonable doubt, therefore, he requested the court to punish the accused as per the law.

On the other hand, the defence counsel said that his clients were falsely implicated in the case.