KARACHI – The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Tuesday revoked punishments awarded to Shahrukh Jatoi and three others in Shahzeb murder case and sent the case to a session court for retrial.
Shahrukh Jatoi, son of a feudal, had in August 2016 filed a review petition through his counsel Advocate Farooq H Naek against the verdict of an anti-terrorism court seeking a retrial in the juvenile court.
The counsel argued that Jatoi was a juvenile when the crime was committed, therefore, the anti-terrorism court could not conduct his trial. He contended that the murder happened due to personal enmity and pleaded the court to review whether the case was to be heard by ATC or not.
Shahzeb Khan, 20, was gunned down in December 2012. Seven people including Shahrukh Jatoi, Nawab Siraj Talpur his brother Sajjad Talpur and their employee Murtaza Lashari were made accused in the case.
In 2013, the anti-terrorism court (ATC) handed death sentence to Jatoi and Siraj Talpur in the murder case, besides awarding life imprisonment to Siraj’s younger brother Sajjad Ali Talpur and his servant Ghulam Murtaza Lashari.
However, the parent of Shahzeb pardoned to the convict months after the sentence.
The Sindh prosecutor general, however, opposed the arguments of Naek to send the case for a new trial and said that the court still had not approved the pardon.
After hearing the arguments, the judge ordered a retrial in the case and annulled the punishments awarded by the court to the four accused.
