KARACHI: A sessions court has sentence a man to death for murdering the husband of his former wife by stabbing him outside a hair salon in 2024, following the conclusion of a high-profile trial linked to personal enmity.
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Additional District and Sessions Judge (East) Aziz ur Rehman Junejo found Muhammad Riaz, also known as Raju, guilty of killing Muhammad Adil — the husband of his ex-wife — and ordered that he be hanged by the neck until death. The court also directed the convict to pay Rs500,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of the deceased. Failure to pay the amount would result in additional imprisonment.
According to state prosecutor Pervez Ahmed Qureshi, the complainant owned a hairdressing salon near Old Sabzi Mandi, where his nephew Muhammad Adil was employed. On the day of the incident, the accused allegedly arrived at the salon armed with a knife and attacked Adil, inflicting multiple stab wounds to the upper part of his body. The victim later succumbed to his injuries.
Police said the accused fled the scene immediately after the attack but was later arrested. The murder weapon was also recovered during the investigation.
In its detailed verdict, the court observed that the presence of the accused at the crime scene had been firmly established through witness testimony. It noted that the identity of the accused was not in dispute, as the deceased was known to him due to his marriage to the accused’s former wife.
The court further stated that the accused had confessed before the magistrate and police, admitting that the motive behind the killing was resentment over his ex-wife’s second marriage. During the trial, the accused denied the allegations and pleaded innocence, but the court rejected his defence.
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“The witnesses gave their account in a natural and confidence-inspiring manner and had no enmity with the accused to falsely implicate him,” the court ruled.