HYDERABAD: The petitioners in the Naila Rind alleged murder case have termed “incomplete” the probe report submitted recently to Sindh High Court Hyderabad circuit bench by a sessions judge on the Sindh University student’s death, seen by the victim’s friends and relatives as murder.

Inderjeet Mal, one of the petitioners who had approached the Hyderabad circuit bench of the SHC in the wake of Naila’s mysterious death, said in the objections filed in SHC through Ali Palh advocate on Monday that the report had missed many vital links in the case.

He said the report did not discuss the first FIR lodged by police under an outdated ordinance of 2009 that indicated inefficiency and mala fide intentions on the part of police.

The report failed to notice what Naila was doing in the hostel during holidays. It quoted hostel warden Mehjabeen as claiming that Naila had come to obtain leave but did not elaborate on why the leave was being sought and whether it was for visiting home or a friend or for some other purpose, he said.

He said the report noted that some girls were present in room No. 21 but failed to give their names nor did it treat them as witnesses. Their statements were also not recorded by the judge, he said.

The petitioner said that at line No. 7 on page No. 9 of the report the room where Naila was staying was mentioned as 36-A of undergraduate hostel and at another place it made mention of only room No. 36 “which was not sealed” but failed to provide reasons why it was so because it risked destruction of vital pieces of evidence hitherto uncollected.

He said the report talked about blank strips of anti-anxiety pills found in a dustbin in the room but failed to probe this aspect in detail. Statements of two roommates of Naila were also not recorded, he said.

Nisar Rind, Naila’s brother, had hinted at harassment as well as threats his sister was receiving from someone but the report did not make any attempt to find out that person and failed to say what kind of mechanism was available in the university for dealing with the issue of girls’ harassment, he said.

He said the report did not say what kind of forensic or digital tools were used to collect additional pieces of evidence which were not part of the earlier investigation by police.

Mr Mal said the report was silent on the fact that parents had complained to media about marks of violence on Naila’s body.

At page 19 the report referred to a messaging group of male and female students of the university but failed to explain if there existed any mechanism for handling harassment of a girl through such means of communication.

The report gave hanging as cause of her death but did not say if she had committed suicide, he said.

After receiving the petitioners’ objections, the division bench comprising Justices Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro and Khadim Hussain M. Shaikh adjourned the matter to Dec 28 for further proceedings.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2017