KARAHCI: Police informed a sessions court on Saturday that the DNA sample of two accused had not matched with those of Dr Maha Shah, who had committed suicide after being blackmailed and harassed in Karachi.

Initially, the police said the 34-year-old doctor practicing at a private hospital in Clifton had allegedly committed suicide by shooting herself at her home in DHA on Aug 18, 2020.

Later, eight men — including her friends Junaid Khan, Waqas Hasan, Bilal, Yasin, Saad, Syed Tabish, Munir and Nasir — were charged with luring the victim into drugs, harassing and blackmailing her that led her to commit suicide.

On Saturday, the matter came up before Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja, when Syed Tabish, Junaid and Saad appeared on bail, while Waqas was absent.

The investigating officer filed a report regarding the chemical analysis of the DNA samples of accused Junaid and Waqas, which had been sent to a laboratory for cross-matching with those of the victim.

He informed that the samples of the two men drawn on the court’s order were sent to the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Science for cross-matching with those of the victim.

“But, the report has shown negative results of the DNA matching of the accused with the victim,” stated the IO Sharafat in his report coupled with the chemical analysis report of the laboratory.

Taking the report on its record, the judge fixed the matter on Dec 11 for recording the testimony of the complainant, who is the father of the victim.

The complainant, Asif Ali Shah, had lodged an FIR against his daughter’s friends for causing her to commit suicide.

In August, the court had indicted the victim’s ex-boyfriend Junaid Khan, his friend Waqas Hasan and her friends, Saad Nasir and Tabish Yasin, under manslaughter and rape charges.

According to the charge sheet, Khan and Hasan allegedly raped her and caused the disappearance of the evidence to save them while Nasir and Yasin provided an illegal weapon to her which she used to end her life.

Police had listed 38 witnesses, including the family members of the victim, a judicial magistrate who had supervised exhumation of the body for a second post-mortem examination on the court’s order, members of the medical board and others.

Police had mentioned in the charge sheet that Khan and Rizvi used to torture her mentally and physically due to which she was suffering from severe anguish and had tried to commit suicide even before.

It suspected that both the accused subjected the victim to rape, thus they were avoiding giving their samples for DNA matching.

The IO said a supplementary charge sheet would be filed after the DNA matching was done.

The report also stated that the victim was addicted to drugs which she procured from peddlers identified as Anmol alias Pinki, Nasir Baloch, Munir, Saadullah, Jamaat Ali and Bilal. They were charged separately.

The court had taken cognizance of the offence under Sections 376 (punishment for rape), 322 (manslaughter), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2021