Pakistani court sentences Hindu teacher to life imprisonment on blasphemy charges
A sessions court in Sindh area of Pakistan on February 08 sentenced a Hindu college teacher to life imprisonment on charges of blasphemy.
The Ghotki-based court also imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on Nautan Lal, a teacher at the Government Degree College, Ghotki.
Additional Sessions Judge Mumtaz Ali Solangi announced the verdict, convicting Lal under Section 265-H of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). A case was registered against Lal under Section 295-C of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). He was arrested in 2019 and he has been in jail since as an under-trial prisoner. His bail application was rejected twice during this period.
On September 14, 2019, a video was shared on social media in which a student claimed that the owner of a local school had committed blasphemy.
Later, teachers clarified that Lal was a physics teacher at the Government Degree College, Ghotki, and that he had nothing to do with the school that he was linked to. They added that Lal was just visiting the school on the day of the incident.
As the student’s claim led to violence in the city, Mufti Adul Karim Sayeedi, the head of a seminary, got a blasphemy case registered against the school owner.
