A court in Lahore on Friday handed down life sentence to former SSP Mufakhar Adeel in the murder case of assistant advocate general (AAG), Punjab Shahbaz Tatla, reported 24NewsHD TV channel. 

The court of additional and sessions judge Shabraiz Akhtar Raja imposed Rs0.4 million in fine on Mufakhar for murdering Tatla besides awarding five-year prison terms and imposing Rs25, 000 in fine on him on each count of kidnapping and obliterating the evidence. 

The court, however, acquitted other two accused in the case namely Asad and Irfan Ali by giving them benefit of the doubt.  

As many as 29 witnesses from the prosecution recorded their statements to the court, while challan against suspects in the case had been presented on October 6, 2020.  

Case had been registered against all three persons at Lahore’s Naseerabad police station.

Advocate Shahbaz Tatla had gone missing from his house in Lahore on February 7, 2020, after which a case of kidnapping was registered on the complaint of his brother Sajjad Ahmed.

The CCTV footage showed that Tatla had left his office with SSP Mufakhar Adeel, after which an investigation was launched against the latter but he erased all evidence of the murder before going into hiding to avoid his arrest.

In the midst of all this, police arrested accomplice Asad Bhatti who confessed to have assisted the SSP in destroying the body of Shahbaz Tatla.

Ex-SSP Mufakhar Adeel had made his own arrest to the police on March 11, 2020. Another accused of the case admitted that he had provided acid to the SSP Mufakhar to dissolve the dead body of advocate Tatla in a drum.

Reporter: Shaheen Atiq