KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday reserved its judgment over appeals filed by the accused Rangers personnel against their conviction in the Sarfaraz Shah murder case.
Rangers personnel were caught on film killing the 22-year old Sarfaraz Shah at Benazir Shaheed Park in Karachi’s Clifton area on June 8, 2011 after a civilian dragged him over to the troops, accusing him of robbery.
A division bench headed by Justice Sajjad Ali Shah heard the final arguments from the deputy prosecutor general who vehemently opposed the convicts’ appeals filed on Aug 25, 2011.
The bench reserved the pronouncement of the verdict to a date to be announced later by the court’s office.
An anti-terrorism court (ATC) headed by Bashir Ahmed Khoso had sentenced Rangers constable Shahid Zafar to death and jailed sub-inspector Bahaur Rehman, lance naik Liaquat Ali and constables Mohammad Tariq, Manthar Ali and Afzal Khan for life on Aug 12. The civilian contractor, Afsar Khan, was also jailed for life in the case.
The appellants, through their counsel, submitted that the ATC had no jurisdiction to try the case against the personnel of law-enforcement agencies.
They submitted that the prosecution did not rely upon the joint investigation teams report that was of the opinion that the act was not terrorism.
Appellants submitted that trial court used inadmissible evidence for convicting them as the impugned judgment was pronounced against them under the influence of a digital video recorder, produced by the prosecution which was against the law.
They requested the court to set aside the conviction as it was illegal and unlawful, and acquit the appellants of the charges.
Meanwhile, complainant Salik Shah, the elder brother of the deceased, had also filed plea urging the court for enhancement of penalty of convicts to death sentence.
Later, brother of victim has withdrawn his application which requested the death penalty.
