Police have booked another PPP lawmaker, MNA Jam Abdul Karim, in the high-profile murder case of Nazim Jokhio whose body was recovered from the farmhouse of PPP MPA Jam Awais in Karachi's Malir area last week.

Jokhio, a 27-year-old father of four, was allegedly tortured to death at Awais' farmhouse in Malir for trying to prevent the legislator’s foreign guests from hunting houbara bustard near the deceased’s village in Thatta's Dabeji area and filming it on November 2.

Police had subsequently registered a case against Awais and four of his associates on charges of torturing Jokhio. On November 5, Awais had surrendered to law enforcers and was remanded into police custody.

On Wednesday, Malir SSP Irfan Bahadur confirmed to Dawn.com that Karim — who is Awais' elder brother — had been nominated in the case in light of the statements given by the victim's family.

SSP Bahadur, who heads a team constituted by East DIG Saqib Ismail Memon for investigating the case, said the case was initially registered against five suspects. The number has now increased to 21, 16 of whom are named suspects while five are unidentified.

The police official said that six people had been arrested in the case, three of whom were detained for threatening Jokhio for filming the legislator's guests.

Moreover, SSP Bahadur said, police had included kidnapping charges in the the case as the victim's family claimed that Jokhio was abducted from his house in his village near Ghaghar Phatak area of Thatta and taken to Jam House, Awais' farmhouse, in Malir where he was allegedly tortured to death.

He said police had conducted raids at the suspects' house and the digital video recorder from CCTV cameras at Jam House had been taken into custody and sent to a forensic lab in Punjab for further investigation.

He added that the mobile phone of the victim’s lawyer had also been sent to Lahore as the family claimed that Jokhio had sent an audio message to the advocate before being killed.

Autopsy report finds torture marks on victim's body

Last week, a post-mortem examination of Jokhio found "severe torture marks" all over the body.

Additional police surgeon at Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre (JPMC) Dr Summaiya Syed said the autopsy carried out by Dr Mohammed Areeb at the centre's mortuary revealed that there were "bruises all over the body, including the head".

The deceased's head also showed internal bleeding caused due to the severity of the alleged torture, she added.

“The body bore torture marks inflicted by hard and blunt objects,” said the senior doctor, adding that there were also signs that a severe beating was delivered on the private parts.

According to the contents of the autopsy report, reviewed by Dawn.com, there were “multiple bruises seen all over the face”. There were also "multiple abrasions, reddish in colour, seen all over the face", the report noted, adding that both the eyes were found "swollen with deep bruises".

Furthermore, the post-mortem examination showed deep bruises over the lower lip and multiple bruises over "one aspect of the chest".

Additionally, the report stated that both hands were found "swollen with deep bruising". According to the medico-legal officers, the victim’s back showed "diffused and linear bruising as well as abrasions of various sizes".