Verdict: SHC upholds death sentence for murderer

Saleem was convicted of murdering his fiancée in 1996

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday maintained the death sentence given to a doctor for killing his fiancée in 1996.

"The present case is one of the callous, brutal murder of an innocent girl in a premeditated and calculated manner," remarked the two judges as they dismissed the appeal made by the condemned man, Dr Muhammad Saleem.

The additional sessions judge, West, had on April 27, 2006, convicted the doctor, who was tried after being on the run for six years.

The prosecution had accused Saleem of murdering his fiancée, Shakeela, and burying her body in his private clinic in Lyari's Muhammadi Colony on December 13, 1996. Investigators alleged that he had killed her because he wanted to marry another doctor.

Appealing against the capital punishment, Saleem claimed that he was wrongly convicted by the trial court.  The SHC judges observed that Saleem's "mere relationship with the deceased by itself is not sufficient to discredit the evidence."

They ruled that the trial court had rightly come to the conclusion that the prosecution had proved its case against the appellant beyond any reasonable doubt before awarding the death penalty.

The convict's lawyer, Amir Mansoob Qureshi, had argued that his client had denied the allegations in his statement, which should be considered while deciding the appeal. He added that the last seen evidence from the crime scene, such as the recovery of the body, did not support the prosecution's accusations.

The judges observed, however, that "there is nothing substantial in the statement of the appellant” to discredit such confidence-inspiring evidence.

The lawyer also contended that the appellant had been incarcerated for over 13 years and pleaded for his release.

The judges maintained the death sentence handed to Saleem by the trial court and dismissed his appeal.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 17^th, 2015.