Pakistan | Death sentence awarded in 14-year-old boy kidnapping, murder case

A local court has convicted a man of kidnapping and killing a 14-year-old boy and handed down death sentence.

Additional district and sessions judge Mohammad Ayaz Khan also ordered the convict, Sher Afzal of Rano Garhi area here, to pay Rs2 million compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased.

He declared that “strong circumstantial and corroborative” evidence of the crime was available against the accused, while the mode and manner in which the prosecution had mentioned the commission of the offence and the connectivity of the accused with the commission of the offence was proved beyond any shadow of doubt.

The FIR of the boy’s kidnapping and killing was registered at the Shahpur police station here on Jan 25 under sections 365 (kidnapping) and 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The court also convicted the accused for kidnapping the boy and awarded 5 years rigorous imprisonment and Rs50,000 fine to him.

Complainant in the case was the deceased’s father, who reported the disappearance of his son to the police on Jan 22, 2021. He later claimed that his son was kidnapped by the accused.

The prosecution insisted that the boy’s body was recovered from a field on the pointation of the accused.

It added that the accused was a friend of the deceased, who later befriended another person to the annoyance of the former, who decided to kill him.

Lawyers Mohammad Farooq Malik and Sidra Rehman appeared for the complainant and said the investigation led to the accused being charged with the disappearance of the deceased and that on his pointation, the police received the body as well as a pistol used in the murder.

They added that the accused later confessed to killing the boy while recording a statement with the magistrate.

The defence counsel argued that the prosecution’s case was full of loopholes and that the accused’s confessional statement was not voluntary.

He added that there was no witness to the kidnapping and murder nor was the deceased last seen with the accused.

The defence counsel added that the accused was arrested on Jan 26, 2021, while he was named in the case on Jan 28 but the prosecution didn’t give reasons for that delay.

He said that the alleged recovery of the body and weapon of offence on the pointation of the accused was a fake story meant to benefit the prosecution only.

Source: dawn.com, Staff, October 28, 2023

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