KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded a suspect to prison in a trainee nurse murder case while a female suspect turned up as a witness after being released by police.

The police produced Mohammad Asif, who has been in custody on physical remand for the past one week, in court and sought extension in his remand.

However, the court sent him to prison on judicial remand till April 25 and asked the investigating officer (IO) to submit the investigation report till next hearing.

The police had also arrested a friend of the deceased, Somaiya, on April 8. She remained in police custody for around 10 days, but the IO released her for want of evidence against her under Section 497(2) of the criminal procedure code.

The police then produced her before the court as a prosecution witness to testify against the suspect. The magistrate recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC. She testified that she was a friend of the victim and they both were getting nursing training from a hospital.

She deposed that they both had friends who they used to meet at a café. She said the victim was annoyed with her friend Asif, the prime suspect in the murder case, because he was going to marry someone else. He took her away from the café on his motorbike on the day of the incident, the witness said.

According to the prosecution, the 22-year-old victim was allegedly strangled to death at a deserted place in Surjani Town on March 31 and her body was set ablaze in an attempt to destroy evidence.

A case was lodged under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the father of the deceased.

Illegal weapon case

A man was sentenced to four years imprisonment in an illicit weapon case on Tuesday.

Mohammad Naveed was found guilty of carrying an unlicensed pistol in North Nazimabad last year.

The assistant additional district and sessions judge (central) Maqbool Ahmed Memon, who conducted the trial, also imposed a fine of Rs10,000 and in case of default the convict would have to undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

The accused was booked under Section 23-A of the Sindh Arms Act 2013 at the Shahrah-i-Noorjehan police station. He was produced in custody and following the pronouncement of verdict, the court remanded him back to prison to serve out the sentence.

Family court

Sindh Minister for Women Development Rubina Qaimkhani on Tuesday was granted Khula (separation) from her husband.

The minster through her lawyer had filed an application in a family court seeking separation from her husband, Saadat Yasin, due to mental and physical abuse. In her application, she contended that she had been bearing all the expenses of their three children as their father had never spent a single penny on them. She added that she also wanted to give up the dowry and haq mehr .

At a previous hearing, the court issued a notice to the defendant with a direction to submit his comments.

When the matter came up for hearing before the judicial magistrate/family judge (south) Aliya Malik on Tuesday, the defendant was not present and his lawyer sought adjournment.

However, the minister informed the judge that she would not live with him any more. After recording the statement of the applicant and hearing the lawyer for the complainant, the court granted Khula to dissolve the marriage.