An Islamabad district and sessions court sent the main suspect in Sarah Inam murder case, Shahnawaz Amir, on 14-day judicial remand on Thursday, upon the expiry of his physical remand.

Shahnawaz was arrested on September 23 for allegedly killing his Canadian national wife at a farmhouse in Islamabad Shahzad Town, where he lived along with his mother, Sameena Shah.

He was initially remanded to police custody a day after his arrest and the period of his physical remand was extended several times. At the last hearing, the court had allowed a three-day extension of his remand, which ended today.

Shahnawaz was presented before the court today upon the expiry of his physical remand, with police seeking his judicial remand.

The court accepted the police request and sent Shahnawaz to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.

FIR

The first information report (FIR) against Shahnawaz was filed at Islamabad's Chak Shahzad police station.

The FIR was registered under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan.

The complaint stated that on September 23, the suspect’s mother Sameena Shah called the police and informed them that Shahnawaz had murdered his wife “with a dumbbell”.

“My son is present in the house and has hidden the body,” the FIR quoted Sameena as saying, adding that the police subsequently raided the house.

“He had locked himself up in his room. When they broke inside, there were stains of blood stains on Shahnawaz’s hands and clothes,” the police said in the complaint.

“He then confessed that he had repeatedly hit his wife with a dumbbell during an argument and then hid her body in the washroom’s bathtub.”

Read: Who killed Sarah Shahnawaz?

According to the FIR, Shahnawaz also said he had “hidden” the murder weapon under his bed.

Upon examining the dumbbell, the police found blood and hair on it. “We have sent it for forensics,” the FIR added.

The complaint further stated that the victim’s body had been sent to the Polyclinic Hospital for a postmortem examination.

Earlier, former deputy superintendent (DSP) prosecution of the capital police, Azhar Shah, told Dawn that the police got an autopsy conducted on the body before the registration of an FIR or receipt of a complaint about the incident, which was a violation of the Police Rule’s chapter 26.

He said if a family member was not available in such a case, the police itself could become a complainant on behalf of the state. The autopsy can be conducted after registration of the FIR, he added.