KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has upheld the life imprisonment of five convicts handed down by the trial court in a case pertaining to the kidnapping of a woman for ransom.

An antiterrorism court had sentenced Ashfaq Ahmed, Mohammad Hassan, Sohail Ahmed, Mohammad Ramzan and Adnan Ahmed to life in prison in July 2017 for abducting Geeta in the Boat Basin area on July 30, 2012 for ransom.

The convicts had set the captive free after receiving ransom of Rs10 million and gold.

The ATC had also awarded them other sentences.

However, the convicts challenged the trial court order through their counsel before the SHC and after hearing arguments from both sides and examining the record and proceedings of the case, the two-judge SHC appellate bench headed by Justice Mohammad Karim Khan Agha dismissed the appeals and maintained the conviction of the trial court.

The bench observed that the prosecution had successfully established its case against the appellants beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2020