Pakistani gets death penalty for killing rival

Lahore: A Pakistani court has handed down death sentence to a fashion model for killing a fellow model, Abeera, through poisoning over three years ago. Lahore’s additional district and sessions Judge Ayesha Rashid yesterday announced the verdict in the presence of convict Azma Rao alias Tooba (a dance event manager) and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,00,000 on her.

However, the judge acquitted two other suspects – Farooq Rehman and Hakeem Zeeshan – of the charges giving them the benefit of the doubt. In 2014, 20-year-old Abeera’s body was found from Lorry Adda bus stand in Lahore. Authorities later arrested her friend Tooba and two of her accomplices with the help of CCTV footage.

The prosecution stated that Tooba wanted to kill her former husband Babar Butt and she made her friend Abeera to help her in the plan. The deceased first agreed to join the murder plot but later stepped back which made Tooba angry, it said. Tooba considered her former husband responsible for the death of their two-month-old daughter.

Babar and Tooba were married 10 years ago and divorced in 2012. Tooba in her statement alleged that Babar and Yousuf Khoker, a cameraman of a local Urdu daily, whom she is thought to have murdered in early 2014 also by poisoning, were responsible for the death of their two-month-old daughter.

She claimed that Babar had refused the treatment of their two-month-old daughter who had fallen ill which lead to her death. She further claimed that Babar had asked her to accompany him to a party a day after their daughter died.

According to police, Tooba wanted her ex-husband dead as he had supplied Khoker with some inappropriate pictures of her which would have a profound impact on her reputation. This was also the alleged reason for Tooba murdering the cameraman.

Police after the interrogation also found that Tooba had filed a complaint against Babar for raping her after which he agreed to marry her. A separate trial is underway in the murder case of cameraman Khokhar.