KARACHI, Feb 14: An anti-terrorism court on Saturday sentenced three men to death in a murder and kidnapping for ransom case.

Nisar Ahmed, Shahzad Masih and Munir Masih were tried for kidnapping a five-year-old boy, Raiyan, and his driver, Irfan, in Oct 2007 and subsequently killing the driver. The boy was released unhurt on payment of ransom.

Judge Syed Hasan Shah Bukhari of ATC-I sentenced them to death after he found them guilty of killing the driver, Irfan.

The judge also found the trio guilty of kidnapping the boy for ransom and sentenced them to life imprisonment.

He also imposed a total fine of Rs150,000 on each convict and in case of default, they would have to undergo an additional rigorous imprisonment of six months.

“The accused in the present case are directly involved in the commission of crime as per evidence brought on the record,” the judge wrote in his order. “After giving through consideration to the material available on the record and arguments advanced by the parties, I am of the view that the abduction is a heinous offence when coupled with ransom and killing of a person, as it will be likely to strike terror and create sense of fear and insecurity in the society and the cases of kidnapping for ransom me be dealt with iron hands,” observed the judge.

The court had reserved its verdict after hearing the final arguments from the defence and prosecution.

The court in its verdict says that the prosecution, represented by Special Public Prosecutor Khan Mohammad Buriro, successfully proved its case beyond a shadow of a doubt by producing ample evidence against the accused to prove their involvement in the case.

Two eyewitnesses, who not only identified the accused during the identification parade held before a judicial magistrate but also assigned their roles in the crime, had also appeared in court and corroborated their earlier statements in their testimonies.

The order says that almost all prosecution witnesses had corroborated the prosecution case while the medical reports also strengthened the case.

“On the point of kidnapping, the prosecution has relied upon the evidence of victim child Raiyan, who is a star witness in the case,” says the court order summarizing the findings.

During the proceedings, the five-year-old child appeared in court and identified the accused one by one as kidnappers and killers of his driver, Irfan.

“The prosecution witness Raiyan was eyewitness of the crime as he was present in the car, when accused fire with gun on deceased driver Irfan, and the witness has given categorically the role of accused and he also recognised him in the court as accused Shahzad Masih, who fire with gun on the deceased,” the judge wrote in the verdict.

The verdict states that the defence counsel did not put any material question to the witness on this point and the evidence presented by the prosecution remained unchallenged. The court, before giving its final verdict, also found evidence of the victim, Raiyan, corroborating with medico-legal certificate of the deceased, Irfan.

According to the prosecution, the accused kidnapped the minor boy and his driver along with their vehicle on Oct 2, 2007 in the limits of the Frere police station and demanded a ransom of Rs500,000. However, after receiving the ransom amount of Rs492,000, they released the boy but killed the driver. The police found the driver’s body and the vehicle near the Baloch Colony Bridge on Oct 3, 2007.

Acting on a tip-off, a team of the Anti-violent Crime Cell conducted a raid in the limits of the Mehmoodabad police station on Oct 10, 2007 and arrested the accused. A case (FIR222/07) was registered under Sections 365-A (kidnapping for ransom), 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-terrorism Act, 1997, against the accused on the complaint of Shahid, the paternal uncle of the victim child.