Case closed: Man sentenced to life for killing in-laws

Asif was charged with murdering his wife’s parents in 2010.

KARACHI: A district and sessions court sentenced on Wednesday a man to life imprisonment after convicting him of murdering his parents-in-law over a property dispute five years ago.

Asif was charged with two counts of murder - that of his wife Beena's father, Farooq, and mother, Fozia - in July,2010 as the police held him on the complaint of one of the deceased's relatives.

The prosecution maintained that the accused strangled his wife's parents to death in their flat in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and fled after attempting to make the crime look like an attempted robbery.

The bodies of the deceased were found in their flat after a neighbour phoned the couple's other daughter, Hina, who lived in North Karachi, and complained of a smell coming of the house.

Hina, accompanied by her husband, reached her parents' place and found them dead.

According to the medical examination report, the couple suffered "cardio respiratory failure due to asphyxia resulting from contraction of neck".

Hina, in her statement before the court, said that her sister married Asif against their parents' will and they were estranged for a long time, until Beena went into labor and was hospitalised. During a meeting on Eid, Asif demanded Farooq hand over his wife's share in the properties the latter owned. Farooq declined the demand and decided to sell the property in the city and move to his native town of Chiniot.

Another witness, who was a neighbour of the deceased, also deposed in trial court that he had seen the accused emerging out of the couple's flat before they were found dead.

The additional sessions judge of District East, Inam Ali Kalhoro, after examining the statements and medical and forensic reports, observed that the case against the accused had been proved. The judge, while awarding a 25-year-long jail term to Asif, also ordered him to pay a fine of Rs200,000 to the legal heirs of the deceased.

Beena was also charged for the murders. She, however, was released after prosecution could not produce any evidence against her.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st,  2016.