HYDERABAD - The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday granted protective bail to four persons accused of killing a waiter at a marriage lawn who allegedly refused to serve guests who had arrived belatedly at the wedding.

According to details, the Hyderabad Circuit Bench approved the bail plea of the accused Shah Muhammad Shah, Shahzan Ali Shah, Farman Ali Shah and Rizwan Ali Shah against the surety of Rs200,000 submitted by each of them.

As per the incident’s FIR, 35-year-old Tharu Shoro, a father of four children, was beaten to death because he had refused to serve the guests at Ink City wedding hall near Diplai Memon Society in the limits of Baldia police station.

Shaukat Ali Shoro, the cousin and complainant in the FIR, claimed that the accused persons kept kicking and punching Shoro until he stopped crying and becoming unconscious. He was rushed to Liaquat University Hospital in a private vehicle but the doctors at the hospital’s emergency ward declared him dead.

The eyewitnesses Soomar Shoro and Sattar Shoro, who also work as waiters at the same lawn, claimed that around 12.45 am Syed Shah Muhammad Shah asked Tharu to set up a table and bring food from one of their cars to serve the guests. But, they added, the slain person refused and told them that the lawn’s time was over and their duty time was also almost done.

Shah reacted furiously to the refusal and began beating him while the three other accused persons later joined him. The two waiters tried to save Shoro but Shahzan Ali Shah pointed a gun at them and asked them to stay away.

The incident’s FIR was lodged after the police high-ups took notice of protest of the Shoro community.

The accused have been booked under sections 302, 506/2, 114 and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code.