PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday granted bail to a man suspected of being involved in murdering a transgender person and dismembering the body here lately.

Justice Roohul Amin Khan accepted the bail petition of suspect Mohammad Farooq asking him to deposit two surety bonds of Rs200,000 each.

It ruled that the order won’t have any bearing on the murder case against the prime suspect, Sadaqat, as the role of suspect Farooq in the crime was different from his.

Sajid was killed, body dismembered in August

The transgender person, Sajid alias Nazo, was killed in the jurisdiction of Pishtakhara police station on Aug 16.

The local police claimed that SHO Ijazullah along with other police officials during routine patrolling saw a young man put a shopping bag in a rickshaw on Bara Road and recovered pieces of a human body from the bag.

They said the man, Mohammad Farooq, told them that the body parts were of a transgender person, Sajid alias Nazo, and that his friend, Sadaqat, killed him before chopping the body into pieces with a dagger and an axe.

The police insisted that on the pointation of the arrested man, Sadaqat was held and more body parts were recovered from him.

They also claimed to have recovered a pistol from Sadaqat, who reportedly disclosed that he had hid the dagger and axe in a nearby field.

Abdul Kareem Khan, lawyer for the petitioner, denied any recovery from his client and insisted that the petitioner wasn’t involved in the murder.

He also said his client didn’t record confessional statement with the magistrate.

The lawyer said the police didn’t assign any role to his client in the murder.

He said even if the police’s version of the case was believed to be true, the petitioner could be charged only with concealing evidence.

The lawyer said the police didn’t mention no independent witness while claiming recovery of a shopping bag with human organs from his client.

The bench observed that it appeared from the records that an iota of evidence had not been collected during investigation to show the petitioner’s involvement in the murder and therefore, sharing his common intention, abetment or premeditation with Sadaqat in the murder was a debatable question making his case to the extent of murder arguable for the purpose of bail.

Published in Dawn, October 12th, 2018