Shahzeb Khan murder case: One year on, ATC refuses to release victim’s car

The court ruled that the car was a case property and that the case was still pending in SHC.

KARACHI: On the eve of Shahzeb Khan’s first anniversary, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) dismissed an application submitted by his mother, seeking the court’s permission to release case property.

Shahzeb Khan, 20, was gunned down on the night of December 24, 2012. Shahzeb, son of DSP Aurangzeb Khan, was reportedly murdered after he had an altercation with one of the suspects’ servant who had allegedly misbehaved with the victim’s sister. The ATC-III dismissed the application of Shahzeb’s mother, Ambreen Khan, saying that the case was pending before the Sindh High Court (SHC) and the case property couldn’t be released until the SHC decided the case.



In her application, filed under section 517-A (order for disposal of property regarding which offence committed) of the Criminal Procedure Code, Ambreen said that the car, Suzuki Swift dark blue color bearing registration No. AFR-2012, driven by her son on the day of the incident was his father’s property and stood in the court premises till date.

Jahanzaib, his uncle, had earlier told The Express Tribune that the new blue Swift was a birthday gift for Shahzeb from his parents.

Mrs Khan said that the court had announced the verdict of the case on June 7 and the case had been disposed of from the ATC. She requested the court to release the case property with directions to the Boat Basin police SHO to hand it over to the owners.

In the verdict on June 7, the court had stated that the property ‘be returned to the owners after proper verification and receipt,’ adding that the property order will be operational after the appeal period expires. Since the accused have filed an appeal in the SHC, said the court sources, her plea was dismissed.

Special public prosecutor Abdul Maroof said that it was up to court’s discretion to allow or dismiss the application. In its remarks, the court ruled that the case property couldn’t be handed over to the owners as the case was pending before the SHC, adding that the case property can be used by the court at any stage.

Case history

The case had attracted much media attention after the Supreme Court had taken a suo motu notice of the murder. The incident had also triggered a widespread debate over whether the country’s elite could be held accountable for crimes they committed. Initially, an FIR, No.591/12, was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the deceased’s father. Meanwhile, section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modestly) of the PPC and Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, were incorporated in the FIR afterwards.

The ATC had handed down death sentences to the main accused, Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Talpur, and life terms to Sajjad Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari. On September 9, Shahzeb’s parents, DSP Aurangzeb Khan and Ambreen Aurangzeb, had decided to pardon the culprits in the “name of Allah,” without claiming the amount of Diyat or Qisas.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2013.