July 08, 2007	Sunday	Jamadi-us-Sani 22, 1428

KASUR, July 7: Sadar police have arrested a man accused of stealing the body of a man from his grave who was killed a few months ago, and sent him to jail. Police arrested Shaukat Ali on Friday and framed charges against him under sections 397 and 201 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the ground that he and his three accomplices injected Salamat to death a few months ago and later removed his body from his grave after a court ordered his exhumation.

According to details, Shazia, a teacher by profession, got married to rickshaw driver Salamat of Maan village and allegedly developed illicit relations with Muhammad Younas of the same village. She asked Salamat to divorce her, but he refused. On this, she moved a local court for the purpose. Salamat did not want separation and tried to reconcile because he has three daughters from Shazia. Finally, Shazia planned to kill Salamat with the help of Younas.

As the row between Salamat and Shazia was deepening, the son of Salamat’s sister-in-law allegedly sodomized a minor Christian boy. The case was brought to the village council, where Salamat, backed by a naib nazim, opposed his sister-in-law, who was backed by a nazim. The council could not settle the issue and a sodomy case was registered against the accused. Later, relatives reconciled Salamat and Shazia’s families for the wedding ceremony of Salamat’s sister-in-law.

But one day before the wedding ceremony, Younas along with his accomplices Asghar and Shaukat called Salamat from his house and took him to BRB Canal, injected poison into his body, left him under a tree and fled. A case was registered against the accused on April 19 on the complaint of Salamat’s father Khushi Muhammad. Nevertheless, Salamat was buried after an autopsy report said the death was ‘natural’.

Muhammad was not satisfied with the autopsy report and moved a court for exhumation of Salamat’s grave and another autopsy of his body. The court ordered exhumation. But when Salamat’s grave was excavated in the presence of a medical board his body was missing.

Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Syed Ali Mohsen told Dawn on Saturday that Asghar was the mastermind of this case. He said raids were being conducted to arrest the other accused. Police is yet to recover Salamat’s body.