Murder convict gets death penalty

Sources say accused killed his sister-in-law over delay in cooking food

RAWALPINDI:

Rawalpindi Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Sohail Anjum has awarded capital punishment to a man for torturing his sister-in-law and later shooting her to death for the delay in cooking food for him.

The court also ordered the accused to pay a fine of Rs200,000 as compensation to the relatives of the deceased.

In its order, the court directed that the accused should be hanged by the neck until dead. The case was filed by the victim herself in a severely injured condition.

Tehmina Bibi filed the case on August 26, 2021, at Kallar Syedan ​​police station and said Raja Zeeshan son of Rab Nawaz is her brother-in-law. “I was in the house with the children and the accused asked to cook roti for him,” she said, adding that she informed him that the flour was finished.

“I asked him to bring the flour from the shop so I could make roti for him and went to the washroom to bathe her child. He grabbed me by the neck, tore my clothes and took me outside the washroom and tortured me,” she said and added that when she resisted, he took out a pistol and shot her before making good his escape.

The police had registered a case against the accused on the charges of torturing his sister-in-law and attempted murder. Two days later, the complainant succumbed to her injuries.

The medical board declared the cause of death to be a gunshot wound, so the police changed the section from 324 (attempted murder) to section 302 (murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code and arrested the accused. The weapon of murder was also recovered from his possession.

After listening to the arguments of the counsels and the witnesses, the court sentenced the accused to death following which he was transferred to Adiala Jail.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 1^st, 2023.