GUJRAT, Dec 19: The body of a known businessman, who was allegedly strangled by his wife and her lover some one-and-a-half-years ago, was exhumed on Friday and the samples collected by a medical officer were sent to a forensic laboratory in Lahore for the post-mortem examination.

Mirza Abu Saad Baig of Mohallah Deputy Yar Muhammad was allegedly strangled by his wife Aaliya, her lover Asif and his friend Jamshed, both residents of Mohallah Shah Hussain, on June 2, 2007.

Before being strangled, Baig’s wife possibly served him a drink spiked with some drugs. However, the wife claimed that his husband died of cardiac arrest.

On Dec 5 this year, one of the accused caught by the Mungowal police while making a phone call from a PCO to Mirza Zubair Baig, the brother of the deceased. During his conversation with Zubair, the accused told him that his brother had not died of cardiac arrest but he was in fact murdered by his wife and her lover.

At this, the A-Division police registered a case against accused Aaliya Bibi, her alleged lover Asif and his co-accused Jamshed, who had rang deceased’s brother Mirza Zubair, also a plaintiff in that case.

Although police had arrested Aaliya Bibi and Jamshed, both of them were released within 24 hours of their arrest on the phone call of PML-N MPA Haji Nasir Mehmood.

Sources said the MPA was of the view that until the post-mortem report confirmed the murder, the accused could not be kept behind the bars. The MPA had also assured the police that he would hand over the accused if the autopsy report confirmed the murder.

DPO Riaz Gara said that inspector Ashraf Gondal, the former SHO of the A-Division police station, was suspended on Dec 7 due to his (SHO) absence from a police picket at the GTS Chowk.

But, the insiders said that SHO Gondal was suspended at the beck and call of PML-N MPA Haji Nasir Mehmood for registering a murder case against Aaliya Bibi and arresting her without any solid evidence.

The release of the accused has created a rift between local leaders of the PPP and the PML-N because complainant Mirza Zubair Baig is the former president of Gujrat PPP and also a close aide of Federal Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar.

Sources said that release of the accused also annoyed the defence minister who rang the Gujrat DPO and asked him not to favour the accused in the investigation.

Soon after the Eid holidays, plaintiff Zubair Baig moved the district and sessions judge for the exhumation of his brother’s body for autopsy. The judge had fixed Dec 18 as the date of exhumation.

The exhumation was conducted under the supervision of area magistrate Khalid Yaqoob Warraich and medical officer Dr Safdar Iqbal in the presence of the police.

Police said the case could further be proceeded in the light of the post-mortem report which was expected to be received within a fortnight.

On the other hand, accused Aaliya Bibi blamed the police and her in-laws of victimizing her.

Sources in the police said that accused Aaliya Bibi, who had confessed to the crime before the investigation officer, had been denying her involvement in the murder of her husband since her release from the jail.