KARACHI, Dec 4 An additional district and sessions court indicted two brothers on Thursday on a charge of killing a fashion designer at his residence on Aug 30.

The suspects, Ameer Hamza and his younger brother Mohammad Saad Farooq, were arrested at the Zamzama Park in Clifton on Sept 3 for their alleged involvement in the case.

Both suspects have denied the murder charge (Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code) and opted to contest the case.

The IVth additional district and sessions judge (south), Abdul Naeem Memon, who is conducting the trial, summoned all prosecution witnesses and directed them to appear in court to record their testimonies on the next date of hearing.

The bullet-riddled body of Sheikh Amir Hassan, a fashion designer, was found in the small hours of Aug 30 in his DHA, Phase V, residence. A case (FIR 215/08) was registered under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Clifton police station on the complaint of the victim's brother, Jalal Hussain.

The prosecution said the victim had received three bullets to the head from a point-blank range, as they had pierced the victim's skull. His hands and feet were tied. The accused had fled after committing the crime.It claimed that the medical reports had established that the bullets received by the deceased were fired from a double-barrelled gun found at the suspects' residence. The ballistic report was also said to have corroborated this.

The investigators had claimed that suspect Ameer Hamza, during preliminary interrogations, disclosed that he with the help of his brother had killed Sheikh Amir as the deceased had made an unsuccessful attempt to sexually abuse him by giving him a heavy dose of tranquillizers in juice, adding that he had met Amir around three years age, and since then they had become friends and the deceased had promised to make him a model.

The prosecution had placed 18 witnesses in the charge-sheet, including the deceased's brother and complainant Jalal Hussain, driver Mohammad Tariq, Ajay Kumar, Waqas, sub-inspector Tariq Khursheed, Ali Saleem, MLO Dr Abdul Jabbar of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, head constable Khalid, Faisal and others.

The investigation officer had submitted a charge-sheet against the suspects on Sept 17, in which he placed reliance on the statements of prosecution witnesses and a confessional statement of a suspect recorded during interrogations.

The charge-sheet said the driver-cum-servant of the deceased, Mohammad Tariq, had said in his statement that he saw a long-haired man with another person sitting in a car parked in front of the victim's home when he was going to offer the morning prayers at around 6am, adding that Mr Hamza was a frequent visitor to the victim's residence.

It said that according to the call record of Mr Hassan's cellphone, he had received a last call from a SIM (subscriber identity module) registered in the name of Ajay Kumar, but Mr Kumar deposed that he was a neighbour of the suspects, and he had sold his SIM to Mr Hamza about a year back but the latter had not got it transferred to his name.

It concluded that another prosecution witness, Waqas, a friend of the suspects, said in his testimony that Mr Hamza called him on Sept 2 and they met the same day, adding that when he asked his friend why he had trimmed his hair and why his cellphone had lately been off, Mr Hamza said he was under tremendous stress because of his involvement in the murder of Mr Hassan.

The hearing was adjourned till Jan 5 for recording testimony of witnesses.

Earlier, both suspects through their counsel had moved bail applications in the court. The judge had rejected the pleas after hearing both sides on Nov 25.