SC acquits Shahrukh Jatoi, others in high profile Shahzeb Khan murder case

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Tuesday acquitted death row inmate Shahrukh Jatoi — the main accused in the high profile Shahzeb Khan murder case.

The other convicts in the case were also acquitted.

Shahzeb, 20, was shot dead on the night between December 24 and 25 in 2012 in a posh locality of Karachi. 

An Anti-Terrorism Court in 2013 had awarded death sentences to Jatoi and Siraj Talpur for Shahzeb's murder, while life sentences were awarded to Sajjad Ali Talpur and Ghulam Murtaza Lashari.

However, on November 28, 2017 the murder case took a dramatic turn when Sindh High Court ordered a retrial, striking down the death penalty awarded to the convicts by the ATC and converting it into life imprisonment. 

In its order, SHC stated that an act of revenge over personal enmity did not equate to an act of terrorism. They had then approached the Supreme Court against the sentences. 

On December 23, 2017 Shahrukh Jatoi, the son of an influential feudal lord, and other defendants in the Shahzeb Khan murder case were released from custody on bail after Shahzeb’s father submitted an affidavit in support of the defendant's bail application.

At the outset of today's hearing the accused’s lawyer Latif Khosa told the three-member bench, headed by Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, that the parties in the case have already reached a settlement.

Khosa told the bench that his clients had no plans of spreading terror, adding that the murder case was painted as a terrorist activity.