Challenging conviction: Appeals of Shahrukh Jatoi, others admitted for hearing

No appeal was filed for the accused servant, Ghulam Murtaza Lashari.


Naeem Sahoutara January 23, 2014
No appeal was filed for the accused servant, Ghulam Murtaza Lashari. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: Shahrukh Jatoi and other convicts on death row and life imprisonment have filed appeals against their sentences. The court has admitted the appeals for hearing on Thursday.

An anti-terrorism appellate bench of the Sindh High Court (SHC) is expected to hear the appeals along with the compromise applications filed by the victim’s family who are said to have pardoned the convicts. Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, who headed the bench, issued notices to the prosecutor general and called records of the proceedings and paper books from the trial courts.

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Among the convicts are the infamous Shahrukh Jatoi and Nawab Siraj Talpur who were handed down death sentences on June 7, 2013, for the murder of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan in December, 2012. In the same verdict, co-accused Nawab Sajjad Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were given life imprisonment.

The defendants were also directed to pay a fine of Rs500,000 each, half of which would be paid to the legal heirs of the deceased. In case they fail to pay, they will have to undergo an additional two years of imprisonment.

Shahrukh was further convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years for possessing weapons without a licence, while Lashari was sentenced to imprisonment for one more year for assaulting Shahzeb’s sister.

Appeals

Days after the conviction, all the convicts had appealed before the SHC against the verdict. The lawyers representing Shahrukh and other defendants stated that the conviction and the sentence were not justified by the evidence placed on record as the trial court’s judge had misread the evidence. “Whenever doubts came up in the case, the court ruled in favour of the prosecution whereas, according to the established principles of law, the benefit of the doubt is always given to the accused,” he argued.

It was claimed in the appeal that the complainant improved his first statement given to the police nominating four accused, said the lawyer. The appellant claimed that the complainant’s version in the FIR never corroborated any circumstantial or medical evidence while the improved statement of the witness could not be relied upon as it affects the credibility of the evidence.

The high court has been appealed to set aside Shahrukh’s conviction after examining the record of the proceedings initiated by the trial court and acquit him on all charges. The Talpur brothers had appealed against their conviction on Monday, however, no appeal has been filed on behalf of their servant, Lashari.

On Thursday, senior lawyer Kamal Azfar and Abid Zubedi appeared for Jatoi. “The appeals are filed within time and on statutory grounds, therefore, the same are admitted for regular hearing,” said Justice Korai.

The bench is also expected to take up for consideration the compromise application filed by the victim’s family.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 24th, 2014.

COMMENTS (1)

Naia Gul | 10 years ago | Reply

I Love u Shahrukh Jatoi,(Quetta, Naila GUl)

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