An anti-terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has sentenced three individuals to seven years in prison each for their roles in the honey trap and kidnapping-for-Ransom case involving the famous screenwriter Khalil-Ur-Rehman Qamar.

ATC judge Arshad Javed announced the verdict on Monday following the court’s previous decision to reserve judgment in the high profiled case.

The three penalties – Amina Arooj, Zeeshan Qayyum and Mamnoon Haider – were found guilty of luring Qamar to a private residence under false conditions, secretly registering him and orchestrating his abduction for ransom.

Eight other people named in the case – including Hassan Shah, Tanveer Ahmad, Qaisar Abbas, Rasheed Ahmad, Falak Sher, Mian Khan, Yasir Ali and Javed Iqbal – were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

The case did not appear until July 2023, when Qamar was allegedly abducted in Lahore after being invited to AROOJ’s apartment on the pretext of discussing a professional project.

He was reportedly held for ransom and released several days later. He filed a police warehouse on July 21 and received an investigation that led to several arrests.

According to the prosecution, the abduction was part of an economically motivated scheme, and Qamar’s legal team had called on the court to impose the death penalty for those found guilty.

In a related legal development, a petition who tried to register a case against Qamar was rejected by a local court in Lahore.

The application was filed by Zainat Bibi, mother of Amina Arooj. During the hearing held for further sessions, Judge Ilyas Rehan, Qamar’s lawyer, Mudasir Chaudhry, the court stated that the petitioner intended to withdraw the application to make changes. The court accepted the request and thereby closed the case for the time being.

Meanwhile, the defense offered a contradictory version of events. AROOJ’s lawyer claimed that Qamar’s manager had initially approached her with a professional proposal that later became personal.

It was claimed that Qamar arrived at another meeting under the influence of alcohol and pressed AROOJ for a physical relationship and threatened to leak photographs if she refused.

The defense also argued that both Qamar and AROOJ were later abducted by Hasan Shah, who was identified as the alleged mastermind, but later acquitted. AROOJ also claimed that she was tortured by police and forced to admit that the incident was a honey trap.