KARACHI: A sessions court on Monday indicted four men for rape, manslaughter and concealing evidence in the Dr Maha Shah suicide case.

Initially, police had said that the 24-year-old doctor practicing at a private hospital in Clifton had committed suicide by shooting herself in her home in DHA. Later, police booked and arrested her friends — Junaid Khan, Syed Waqas Hussain Rizvi, Tabish Yaseen Qureshi and Saad Nasir Siddiqui.

On Monday, the matter came up before Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja for framing of charges against the suspects.

All the four suspects appeared in court on bail.

The judge read out the charges to the accused. However, all of them pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.

The judge summoned prosecution witnesses to record their testimonies against the accused persons.

The court adjourned the hearing till Sept 4.

The investigating officer has listed around 38 witnesses, including family members of the victim, a judicial magistrate who had supervised exhumation of the body for a second autopsy on court’s order, members of the medical board and others.

On the last date, the court had dismissed an application by suspects Khan and Rizvi, pleading to exclude Section 376 (punishment of rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) from the case.

The state prosecutor had opposed the plea arguing that both men were deliberately avoiding giving their samples for DNA matching with those of the victim, which had been preserved at a laboratory in Jamshoro.

A case was registered under Sections 322 (manslaughter), 376, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the PPC at the Gizri police station.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2021