KARACHI: Hearing in couple’s murder case adjourned
By A Reporter
KARACHI, Jan 28: The additional district and sessions judge, Central, Tasneem Sultana, on Monday adjourned the hearing of the newly-wed couple’s murder case till Feb 1 due to the absence of the complainant.
The complainant, Danish Zaheer, brother of the deceased bride Beenish, did not appear in court; however he has been summoned on the next hearing.
According to the prosecution, Hafiz Shaikh Mohammad Azeem and his bride Beenish were found dead under mysterious circumstance the next morning of their wedding night in their North Nazimabad apartment in the limits of Taimuria police station on Aug 11, 2007.
On Jan 11, the court had indicted Shaikh Abdul Majeed, father of the deceased groom, on the charges of killing the couple. The accused pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.
The accused, through his counsel had moved a bail application to court. The judge had recorded the final arguments from both the sides and reserved the order on the bail application. However, the order was deferred till Feb 1.
On Oct 27, the investigation officer (IO), Khalid Khan, of New Karachi police station had submitted an interim charge-sheet to the judicial magistrate-12 (Central), Abdul Zahoor Chandio, in which he had nominated Shaikh Abdul Majeed, as the main accused in the case.
Referring to Mr Majeed’s interview on a TV channel, the IO said that Shaikh Majeed had himself admitted his presence up till 5am in the couple’s room. He said that Beenish, the bride, was also murdered between 4am and 5am by breaking her jaws and was allegedly asphyxiated to death by covering her nose and mouth with a pillow.
On Nov 24, the court of the judicial magistrate-12 (Central), had directed the SSP investigation (Central) to re-investigate the case and submit a final charge-sheet on Nov 30. Earlier, the court had also issued many notices to the IO directing him to submit the final charge-sheet of the case. Despite repeated reminders, the final charge-sheet was not submitted. However, the court considering the interim charge-sheet, submitted by the investigation officer on Oct 27, as the final one, sent the case to the court of the district and sessions judge, Central, for further action.
The case (FIR No391/07) was registered on the complaint of the family of the deceased bride, Beenish, at Taimuria police station under Section of 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
On Sept 20, Abdul Majeed through his counsel, submitted an application to the district and sessions judge, (Central), Abdul Maalik, under Section 22-A(6) (iii) (iv) of the CrPC. The applicant had requested the transfer of the case’s investigation to any other zone, citing his lack of confidence on the investigation process. Following his nomination in the case, Abdul Majeed had rejected the police version and expressed his dissatisfaction over the investigation process and, said he had already requested the court for moving the investigation from zone west to any other zone.
The accused was sent to jail on Dec 4, 2007.
Suspected terrorists remanded
The judicial magistrate-III, Central, extended the remand of five suspected terrorists arrested on the eve of Ashura till Feb 2. Earlier, on Jan 21, they were remanded in police custody till Jan 28. The suspected terrorists were produced in court amid tight security. According to the prosecution, five suspected terrorists identified as Syed Mohammed Waseem alias Imran, Mohammed Aijaz alias Abdul Rehman, Jamil Ahmed alias Wazir Akbar, Mohammed Hamid alias Qasim and a would-be suicide bomber, Aziz Ahmed alias Mohammed Khan were planning to carry out suicide attacks during Ashura. They were arrested on Jan 19.
