PESHAWAR, Oct 24: The female relatives of a person arrested on charges of murdering his mother have demanded a judicial probe into the killing and the arrest of brothers and nephews of the slain lady, Sardar Begum.

Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Thursday evening, the wife and daughter of the 70-year-old brother-in-law of the lady, Syed Phool Shah, who has also been arrested in connection with the murder, said the woman was very rich and her brothers wanted to grab her wealth.

They said that Mazhar Ali Shah, son of Sardar Begum, was residing in the UK along with his family members for the last three months and was arrested on Oct 19, the day he returned from the UK.

Mr Mazhar, they alleged, was implicated in the murder of his mother who had been killed on Oct 9 in mysterious circumstances inside her home. They claimed that the maternal uncles of Mazhar were forcing their sister to dis-inherit her son, but she declined to do so.

With tears trickling down their cheeks, the women deplored that Mr Mazhar had been arrested “at the behest of a relative of the IG Police Mohammad Saeed Khan” in order to save the real killers.

The slain woman, they said, were to receive Rs18 million as compensation of her property at the Regi Model Town and her brothers wanted to get that money. The police, they said, had impounded the vehicles of the murdered woman illegally and were planning to hand over all of her assets to the brothers of Sardar Begum.

“How can a son living in the UK be benefited from the death of his mother,” they posed a query. Similarly, they said, there was no reason to arrest the aged bother-in-law of Sardar Begum on flimsy charges.

They demanded of the government to immediately arrest the “real killers”, or they would stage protest demonstrations against the police.

They demanded of the NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah to order a judicial probe into the murder and provide relief to the “innocent son and brother-in-law” of the slain lady.

innocence claimed: Mazhar Shah on Wednesday claimed to be innocent, stating that he was implicated in the case by his maternal relatives who wanted to get the money which belonged to his deceased mother.

He told the newsmen on Wednesday that the NWFP Inspector General of police was interested in his arrest.   He said, on Oct 5, he was told by his mother, Sardar Begum, that his  maternal uncles had been pressurising her to disinherit him from her property.

He said, on Oct 9, he received the news of his mother’s death and when he returned he was taken into police custody at the behest of his maternal relatives. He claimed that one of his cousins was married to a close relative of the IGP, due to which the police had been torturing him to confess his involvement in the murder. He added that before his return his uncles had taken away all the valuables, including the jewellry of his mother, from his residence.

An interesting situation emerged at the premises of the session court, when a DSP (investigation), Rafique Khan, accompanying the accused, refused to leave a courtroom when he found out that the additional district and sessions judge, Pir Buksh, had left the court at the closing hour.

The DSP insisted that he reached the court in time and refused to vacate the court, placing the officials in an awkward position as they had to lock the court. Finally, the DSP was convinced by his colleagues to leave the courtroom.