A sessions court in Ghotki has sentenced a Hindu man to life in prison on charges of blasphemy. Nautan Lal has been fined Rs50,000 as well, a private TV channel reported. Additional Sessions Judge Mumtaz Ali Solangi delivered the verdict on February 8, 2022. It has taken the court two years to pass the final order. Nautan Lal has been in jail since 2019 as an undertrial prisoner. A written copy of the court’s verdict states that he was convicted under Section 265-H of the Code of Criminal Procedure. This section says: if the accused admits that he has been previously convicted as alleged in the charge, the court may pass a sentence upon him according to law, and if the accused does not admit that he has been previously convicted as alleged in the charge, the court may take evidence in respect of the alleged previous conviction, and shall record a finding thereon, and then pass sentence upon him according to law. A case against Nautan Lal was also registered under Section 295-C (use of derogatory remarks, etc., in respect of the Holy Prophet (PBUH)) of the Pakistan Penal Code. He has been sent back to Central Prison in Sukkur. In the past two years, his requests for bail have been rejected twice. On September 14, 2019, a video was shared on social media in which a teenager, a first-year Intermediate student, claimed that the owner of Ghotki’s Sindh Public Higher Secondary School had blasphemed himself. According to teachers, however, Nautan Lal was just visiting that day. He doesn’t actually teach at his school. He is a physics teacher at Government Degree College Ghotki.