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The Sindh High Court altered capital punishment awarded to two prime accused in the Shahzeb Khan murder case – Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Talpur to life imprisonment on Monday.
According to Express Tribune, the top court also upheld the life imprisonment sentence awarded to two other accused, Siraj Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza. The accused filed the case for a review appeals which was decide by the court.
The counsel representing the case during the hearing stated that the prime accused Shahrukh Jatoi was declared as an adult aged above 18 years and cannot be tried under juvenile laws.
Shahrukh’s legal counsel stated before the court that the families of the victim and the accused had reached to an agreement and have requested the court to acquit all the accused in this case.
“The victim’s father has passed away and his mother and sisters have moved abroad,” said Shahrukh’s lawyer.
The victim was a 20-year-old son of former Deputy Superintendent of Police, Aurangzeb Khan, who was gunned down in Karachi’s Defence House Authority (DHA) are on the night of December 24, 2012.
The rift between the victim Shahzeb Khan was coming with his family from a wedding when the accused Jatoi’s employee misbehaved with Khan’s sister.
The accused, however, refused to apologise for the behaviour of his employee. Shahzeb was gunned down by the accused after he left his house and was driving towards Saba Avenue.
The murder case sparked outrage across the country leading to then chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry to take suo motu notice.
In February 2018, the Supreme Court turned petitions by civil society into a suo motu notice and set aside the 2017 SHC decision ordering a retrial.
The apex court also restored terrorism charges framed against the accused – Shahrukh, Siraj and Sajjad – which had been removed by the SHC. The SC bench ruled that bails granted to the accused by the sessions court were against the law, according to Express Tribune.
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