KARACHI, Dec 20: Renowned artist Abdul Mohammad Ismail Gulgee and his wife Zareen Gulgee were buried in a local graveyard after their last rites were performed at the Kharadar Ismaili Jamaatkhana on Thursday evening.
The burial took place in the Imam Muslim Cemetery in the trans-Lyari area where a few people turned up to attend it. Of the city’s celebrities, only Anwer Maqsood was seen at the burial besides the slain couple’s only son, Amin Gulgee.
Capital City Police Officer Azhar Ali Farooqi told Dawn that the missing Corolla of the murdered artist had been traced and the record from the tracker company was being obtained to find out where it was used and what distance it covered before being abandoned. Similarly, fingerprints from the car have been collected, but no valuable piece of evidence has been found yet.
The CCPO said Amin Gulgee was not being treated as a suspect. “But if we have reason to believe so at a later stage, we may do so.” He said the police had to question so many people in the investigation to piece together the real picture as to what had actually happened. SP Investigation (South) Niaz Khosa said the Corolla (AGH-956) was found parked in the Khadda Market area of the Defence Housing Authority. However, the driver and two other servants were missing.
Another official associated with the investigation said the family frequently fired domestic servants, replacing them with others. “That is the reason why the servants of Amin Gulgee do not know the identity of the servants working in the neighboring portion of the late Gulgee,” he said, adding that the identities of the servants were still a mystery.
A senior police officer requesting anonymity said that following the burial of the couple, statements of Amin Gulgee and his French friend, who lives with him, would be recorded. Similarly, the guards were also being questioned.
He said that so far no clear line of investigation had been established in the case and all angles were open for consideration. However, he ruled out the possibility of a break-in for valuables, as nothing was unaccounted for in the house.
“The motive behind the killing is still not clear. No valuable was touched by the criminals,” SP Khosa said.
The body of maid Aasia was handed over to her son Tayyab after the postmortem examination on Wednesday night.
The high-profile murder prompted operatives of some intelligence agencies to visit the crime scene on Thursday morning, a source said.
Meanwhile, an FIR (490/2007) under Section 302/34 of the PPC was registered at the Boat Basin police station on Wednesday morning, on the complaint of Amin Gulgee.
