Man gets life in prison for murdering neighbour after being barred from smoking

A model court on Thursday sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering his neighbour after a quarrel over being barred from smoking outside the victim’s house in the Jamshed Quarters area.

Muhammad Qasim Abbasi was charged with murdering Muhammad Imran Khan within the jurisdiction of the Jamshed Quarters police station on February 20, 2021.

Additional District and Sessions Judge-I Haleem Ahmed of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) pronounced his verdict which he had reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

After perusal of the record and hearing both sides, the judge said that evidence adduced by the prosecution is “consistent, truthful, worthy of credit hence reliable”, adding that ocular evidence is supported by medical evidence, recovery of a firearm and its forensic science laboratory report.

He maintained that the ocular evidence has established that the accused had quarrelled with Khan before he took out a pistol, barged into his house and shot him.

The judge said the prosecution has successfully proved its case against the accused beyond any shadow of doubt. The prosecution has proved that Abbasi committed the murder of his neighbour with a firearm, he concluded and handed him life imprisonment.

In addition to that, the court said the convict is required to pay compensation to the tune of Rs500,000 to the legal heirs of the deceased.

The judge, explaining why didn’t he award the death penalty to the murderer, said he fired one shot at the deceased and didn’t fire afterwards, which constituted a strong mitigating circumstance to hand down a lesser penalty.

He also allowed him the benefit of 382-B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which means that the period he has already spent in detention will be deducted from the sentence awarded to him by the court. Following the pronouncement of the judgement, he was remanded to the central prison to serve out the sentence.

An FIR was registered at the Jamshed Quarters police station under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Complainant Kamran Khan, the victim’s brother, stated that the accused was smoking a cigarette in front of the main gate of his house, infringing privacy of his house. On being barred from smoking there, he said Abbasi got furious and scuffled with him. Kamran’s brother, who was sleeping inside the house, came out on hearing his brother’s hue and cry, after which Abbasi also engaged in a brawl with him. The accused later came back with a pistol and barged into their house and fired shot at his brother, who died while being shifted to hospital.