KARACHI: Shahrukh Jatoi, the main suspect of Shahzaib murder case, was released from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) on Saturday evening after a local court approved bail of Jatoi and his three accomplices.

The release order was issued by a District and Sessions South Judge who also ordered the accused to submit Rs500, 000 each as surety amount.

Earlier today, the victim’s father Aurangzaib Khan did not oppose the bail pleas and asked the court to drop the case, maintaining that his family had already pardoned all the suspects.

After which Shahrukh Jatoi, son of Sikandar Jatoi and his friend Nawab Siraj Ali Talpur, who were sentenced to death by the ATC, and Sajjad Talpur and Ghualm Murtaza who had been given life imprisonment by the trial court were granted bail.

On November 28, Sindh High Court (SHC), while hearing a criminal review application of a death row convict Jatoi, had annulled the punishments of all the accused persons awarded by the ATC and ordered retrial of the case in a Sessions court.

The applicant’s counsel Faooq H Naek had contended that his client was juvenile at the time of the crime, therefore he could not be tried under the anti-terrorism law.

The 20-year old university student Shahzaib was gunned down on 24th December 2012 at Khayaban-i-Bahria in Defence Housing Authority after he had heated arguments with Jatoi, his friends and servants.

The Anti-Terrorism Court in June 2013 sentenced Jatoi, and his friend Talpur to death while two other co-accused Sajjad Talpur and Ghualm Murtaza got life imprisonment.