KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Saturday directed the investigating officer to submit the final charge sheet against six suspects booked and arrested over the death of their young friend, who died after falling from a multi-storey residential building in Defence Housing Authority Phase-VIII last month.

Police booked and detained Syed Muhammad Ammar, Usman Ahmed, Owais, Uzair Ahmed, Ahmed Jamil, and Syed Faaz following the death of their 26-year-old friend, Adil Masood Khan, on July 31.

On Saturday, the IO was set to file the charge sheet before Judicial Magistrate (South) Mazhar Ali, who on the previous date had issued a show-cause notice to the former over his failure to submit final charge sheet despite the lapse of stipulated time.

However, IO Abdul Raheem appeared and requested for more time to enable him to submit the final charge sheet, stating that the investigation was still incomplete.

Granting the request, the magistrate told the IO to submit the final charge sheet on the next date and adjourned the matter till Aug 31.

The IO had filed an interim charge sheet against the six detained men for allegedly committing manslaughter of their friend.

However, the charge sheet was silent about the alleged commission of murder of the victim despite the incorporation of Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code in the case by the IO, earlier.

Without elaborating the commissioning of the alleged murder, the IO had stated that during the course of the investigation he found no evidence to suggest that the deceased was “pushed off” from the high-rise residential building or there was any “resentment” between him and the suspects.

The charge sheet merely stated that blood samples of the suspects had been sent to the University of Karachi’s International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS) for chemical examination.

The IO listed 14 witnesses, including the complainant. However, he showed owner of the flat, where the alleged drug party took place, as absconder.

Masood had died after falling from the high-rise building near Do Darya under mysterious circumstances on the morning of July 31.

A case under Sections 322 (manslaughter) and 34 (common intention) of the PPC was registered against his friends at the Darakhshan police station on the complaint of the victim’s sister, Varda Masood.

She alleged that the six detained friend of her brother left him unattended in injured condition and the building’s management had shifted him to the hospital, but he could not survive.

Police claimed that the youth had rented the apartment for one night where they were having a party when Masood went to the balcony from where he fell.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2022