KARACHI: An antiterrorism court on Tuesday accepted a police report recommending release of three detained suspects in a case pertaining to murder of a Chinese national.

The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts had sent the matter to ATC-IX with the direction to dispose of the same after the police investigating officer submit an ‘A’ class report in the case.

After examining the record and hearing arguments from the IO and others, the ATC-IX judge approved the police report and ordered release of Saqib Ahmed, Rehan Hashim and Mohammad Aamir Khan forthwith if their custody was not required in any other case.

The police booked them for allegedly killing 48-year-old Chen Zhu, managing director of a shipping firm, in February near Zamzama Park in Defence Housing Authority.

Earlier, on June 13, the investigating officer submitted an investigation report to the administrative judge, stating that they had yet to find any evidence against the three suspects arrested over the murder of the foreign national and recommended their release.

The police report said that a joint investigation team (JIT) had grilled the suspects, but it could not find any incriminating evidence against them.

Initially, the police said that Saqib was a son of one of the partners of the same firm, while Hashim was an employee of the company. They had allegedly hired an assassin to eliminate the MD.

In the investigation report submitted to the administrative judge, investigating officer Syed Mohammad Sarfaraz of the Counter-Terrorism Department recommended that the three detained suspects be released under Section 497(II) of the Criminal Procedure Code since no solid evidence had so far been found against them during the course of investigation.

According to the report, the closed-circuit television camera footage of the incident was sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore for analysis, but assailants could not be identified due to poor quality of the footage.

It further said that since the deceased had fired and demoted many senior officials of the company, the Pakistani directors of the firm were unhappy with him.

The investigation report further said that mobile phones of Saqib and Hashim were also sent to the technical branch for analysis and two SMS regarding the murder of Chen Zhu were found in the mobile of Saqib, adding that during questioning both suspects had admitted that they had asked their employee Amir to keep an eye on the victim and monitor his activities.

Since there was a strong possibility of direct or indirect involvement of the suspects in the case, the report said that the home department had constituted a JIT to interrogate the suspects. However, the JIT had declared Saqib and Hashim “grey” and Amir “white”, it added.

The investigation report further contended that despite all circumstances, no incriminating evidence had so far been found against the suspects and requested the court to set them free until any direct evidence comes on record against them.

Published in Dawn, June 27th, 2018