MITHI: Judicial magistrate Nisar Ahmed Dars on Saturday ordered functionaries of police and health departments to form a medical board for exhuming bodies of suspected murder victims, Doongar Meghwar and his sister-in-law Babita Meghwar.

The judge issued the order on an application filed by Dodo Meghwar, brother of late Doongar, and asked the officials concerned to coordinate with each other and fix a date for the exhumation of the bodies at the earliest.

Doongar and his sister-in-law Babita were found hanging from a ceiling fan in the house of ASI Gul Mohammad Sand in Old Fakeer locality in Mithi town on Dec 31, 2020.

Local police had initially tried to dismiss the deaths as suicide sparking protests by the victims’ relatives, who staged demonstrations outside the police station and alleged that the pair had not committed suicide but they had been killed by the police official and his accomplices.

They claimed that Babita was also criminally assaulted by the suspects before being killed.

Later, Sindh IGP took notice of the protest and not only did he order registration of an FIR as per the protesters’ demands but also appointed SSP of Shaheed Benazirabad Tanweer Ahmed Tunio as investigation officer to probe the suspected double murder case. The SSP had a few days back directed police officials to beef up security around the victims’ graves.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2021