Shahrukh Jatoi and two co-accused earlier convicted in the 2012 murder of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan were released from jails after their bail applications were approved by a court on Saturday.
Jatoi
had covered his face with the hood of his sweatshirt when he walked out
of Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) in Karachi, where he was
undergoing treatment. The hospital had been declared a sub-jail.
Two
other co-accused in the case, Sajjad Ali Talpur and Siraj Ali Talpur,
were released from the Central Prison Karachi. Although the bail of the
fourth accused — Ghulam Murtaza Lashari — was also approved, he was not
released today.
The four accused were allowed to post
bail by District and Sessions Judge Imdad Hussain Khoso, who is
overseeing a retrial of the case.
The bail, which was
set at Rs500,000 for each of the accused, was promptly deposited by a
lawyer on behalf of Jatoi and the Talpur brothers. The counsel also
moved the court for the immediate signing of their release orders, which
were issued forthwith.
Shahzeb Khan's father, Aurangzeb
Khan, had earlier in the day asked the sessions court to not only
release the four men earlier convicted of his son's murder on bail, but
also drop the case against them completely.
He argued that his family had earlier pardoned his son's killers and asked that their decision be upheld.
Pakistani law has a maximum punishment of the death
penalty, or life in prison for a murder. But, under Islamic laws of
Qisas and Diyat, the victim's families can strike an out-of-court deal
with the murderers. In that case, the victim's families generally appear
in court to testify that they have pardoned the murderer in the name of
God. However, Shahzeb's family had waived their right to Qisas and
Diyat and told the court they had reached an out-of-court compromise
with the accused's family.
An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) had earlier awarded the death penalty to Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Ali Talpur
for 20-year-old Shahzeb's murder in 2012 following a petty dispute.
Siraj's younger brother, Sajjad Ali Talpur, and domestic helper Ghulam
Murtaza Lashari had been handed life sentences.
A couple
of months after the sentence was passed, however, Shahzeb's parents had
issued a formal pardon for the convicts, approved by the Sindh High
Court (SHC).
Despite the pardon, however, the death penalty had been upheld because of the addition of terrorism charges to the case.
However, the SHC recently set aside the death penalty and ordered a retrial of the case in a sessions court after a criminal review petition filed by Jatoi's lawyer argued that terrorism charges should be dropped as the prime suspect was a juvenile at the time of the offence.
The retrial ordered by the high court had commenced last month.
In a previous hearing of the case, the sessions court had ordered Shahzeb's family to submit the pardon documents verified by the high court.
The sessions court had also sought a verified copy of the high court's order to revoke the punishments against the accused.
As
per the court's orders, Aurangzeb had appeared on Saturday to submit a
copy of the pardon. The report on the SHC order to revoke the ATC's
sentence was not presented at today's hearing.
Aurangzeb
claimed that after Jatoi and his accomplices were awarded a death
sentence by an ATC, he, with consent from his family, had reconciled
with the convicts.
"We forgave Shahzeb's murderers for the sake of Allah," he stated.
From an 'act of terrorism' to a 'juvenile offence'
Shahzeb's murder in 2012 had prompted then chief justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry to take suo motu notice of the case,
which had sparked outrage across the country as people questioned if
the prime suspect — who belongs to the powerful Jatoi family — would
ever be held accountable for their actions.
The heavily
scrutinised trial had seemingly concluded when an ATC awarded the death
penalty to Jatoi and Siraj Talpur and life sentences to Siraj's younger
brother, Sajjad Ali Talpur, and domestic helper Ghulam Murtaza Lashari
in June 2013.
In August 2016, however, Jatoi's lawyer —
Advocate Farooq H. Naek — filed a criminal review application in the
SHC, claiming that the offender was a juvenile when the crime was
committed and, therefore, the terrorism charges he was tried under
should not have been applied.
After hearing Naek's
appeal, the SHC had set aside the ATC's death penalty and ruled that a
section of the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), 1997 had been misapplied by
police as the case seemed to concern a personal vendetta.
The high court subsequently ordered a retrial and referred the case to a session court.
Shahzeb's murder
The episode had started with the harassment of the victim’s
sister by Lashari. She stated in trial court that Lashari had directed
indecent remarks at her as she was about to enter her 11th-floor
apartment upon her return from a wedding.
The teenage
girl deposed that she immediately phoned her mother about the harassment
from the Talpurs’ servant. The girl’s mother stated in her deposition
that she immediately sent her son home to help his sister.
The
victim returned and had an altercation with Lashari, which led to a
quarrel between him and the accused persons. However, the victim’s
mother later tried to pacify the situation and directed her son to
tender an apology.
The victim did what his mother asked
him to do, but the accused persons did not accept the gesture, saying
that they would be satisfied only if Lashari, who had been employed as a
cook by the Talpurs only two days prior to the incident, was allowed to
slap the victim.
On hearing those terms, the victim’s
mother directed her son to leave the place. Immediately after Shahzeb's
departure, Shahrukh Jatoi had taken out his pistol and threatened that
he would kill Shahzeb.
After the four co-accused in the
case had also departed, the victims’ parents went to the apartment of
the two accused Talpurs’ father, Nawab Imdad Ali Taplur, to settle the
matter.
However, the accused persons meanwhile intercepted the victim at Karachi's Khayaban-i-Bahria and shot him dead.
Two
friends of the victim, Muhammad Shah and Muhammad Ahmed Zuberi, who had
chased the accused persons fearing an assault on their friend,
witnessed the incident and deposed in court accordingly.
The
two friends stated in court that Shahzeb rolled over and rested on a
side after he was fired upon. Nawab Sajjad Ali Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza
Lashari then walked up to the victim’s car and asked Shahrukh Jatoi to
kill the victim as he was still alive.
Jatoi had then fired more shots at the victim, ensuring his demise.
Initially,
the case (FIR 591/12) had been 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. However,
during the investigation, Section 354 (assault or criminal force to
woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the PPC and Section 7 of
the ATA, 1997 were inc
orporated in the FIR.
