KARACHI: A sessions court sentenced on Tuesday a man to life in prison for raping and killing a minor girl.

Azeemuddin was found guilty of killing the nine-year-old girl after subjecting her to a sexual assault at his shop in Mominabad in January 2005.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (west) Irfan Ahmed Meo pronounced his verdict after recording evidence of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court handed down life term to the accused under Section 302 (premeditated murder) and another 10-year term under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the convict and in case of default he would have to undergo an additional six months in prison.

However, the court ruled that both the sentences would run concurrently.

According to the prosecution, the accused was a baker and on Jan 11, the victim went to his shop in the Mominabad area to purchase bread, but the accused with his two absconding accomplices strangulated the girl after subjecting her to rape and dumped her body inside the shop.

A case (FIR 99/2005) was registered against the accused on a complaint of the victim’s father at the Mominabad police station.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict and remanded him back to prison along with his conviction warrant to serve out the sentence.

Man gets life term for killing wife

A sessions court sentenced on Tuesday a man to life imprisonment in a murder case.

The court found Hukam Khan guilty of killing his wife Fauzia in September 2007 at their house in Frontier Colony.

The additional district and sessions judge (west), Shagufta Siddiqui, also asked the convict to pay Rs1 million to the legal heirs of the deceased as compensation and in case of non-payment he would have to undergo an additional one year in prison.

The court in its verdict observed that two key prosecution witnesses had seen the accused fleeing from his house after committing the offence and their testimonies were corroborated by the medical and other documentary evidence.

The accused took the plea that the deceased was sold out to him by her family against Rs70,000 and he had not paid the full amount, thus he was farmed in the case. However, it was not believable that relatives of the deceased framed him only to recover such a little amount and forgotten to trace out the actual murderer of their girl, the court ruled.

According to the prosecution, the accused was married with a 19-year-old girl around one and a half years before the incident in Swabi, from where they later moved to Karachi. She used to made complaints to her relatives against her husband of maltreatment and torture. Two relatives of the victim went to her house on the day of the incident, the accused opened the door and run away and they found her dead inside the house, it added.

The police managed to arrest the accused a day after the incident. He was present in court in custody and after pronouncement of the vredict he was sent back to prison.

A case (FIR 254/07) was registered under Section 302 (premeditated murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the deceased’s brother at the Pirabad police station.