ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court today acquitted Shahrukh Jatoi and co-accused in Shahzeb murder case. Shahrukh Jatoi belongs to a very influential and a filthy rich family in Sindh.
A three-member bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ijazul Ahsan announced the verdict on Tuesday.
In Dec 2012, Shahrukh Jatoi, Siraj Talpur, and two security guards Murtaza Lashari and Sajjad Talpur were convicted of killing Shahzeb Khan in Karachi over a petty argument.
An anti-terrorism court in Karachi awarded death sentences to the accused in the case. However, a single bench of the Sindh High Court removed the Anti-Terrorism Act clauses from the case and sent it to a trial court.
The trial court then granted them bail in the case, but the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of the case and ordered the SHC to reexamine the case after civil society raised the issue.
In May 2019, the Sindh High Court converted the death sentences of Shahrukh Jatoi and Siraj Talpur in the Shahzeb Khan murder case to life imprisonment.
The court upheld the life imprisonment of two other suspects in the case.
The four men wanted their death sentences to be overturned. However, the Sindh High Court noted that while Section 302 (Murder) of the PPC is a pardonable offence, and Shahzeb Khan’s family had pardoned the men, the clauses of the Anti-Terrorism Act were not pardonable.
