LARKANA: The case of an eight-year-old missing girl’s alleged murder by her father was on Friday transferred to a team of high-ranking police officers after the suspect disowned his ‘confessional statement’ filed in court by the Allahabad police.

Sources said that the accused, Naveed Khuhawar, approached the Larkana DIG, Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh, through his lawyer, Abdul Rauf Korai, requesting him to transfer the case to the police of some other district for a fair probe.

The DIG accordingly entrusted the investigation to Jacobabad DSP Ammanullah Sadhayo and the City SDPO, police sources said.

The girl, Naveela, 8, had gone missing from her neighbourhood, Daya Street in Allahabad, on October 12, 2022 and Khuhawar had been holding protests regularly over failure of the area police to locate her. Eventually, Khuhawar moved the Sindh High Court which on March 22 sought a report from the Larkana SSP on the matter and progress of the investigation.

The girl has remained unaccounted for so far.

After further investigation, the Allahabad police picked up Khuhawar and extensively interrogated him before formally arresting him for allegedly having killed his daughter by throwing her into River Indus from the Larkana-Khairpur bridge. The police kept him in custody for several days and claimed that he had confessed to have killed his daughter. They attributed the ‘confessional statement’ to him that his second wife was unhappy over keeping Naveela, who was born to his first wife. However, when Khuhawar was produced in court on April 10, he disowned the statement saying that the police extracted it by subjecting him to torture in custody. The court remanded him into police custody for three days.

Khuhawar was again produced in court on April 13 and the judge extended the remand for three more days.

On Friday (April 14), the Larkana DIG issued his order stating that in the light of the recommendations received from the DIG crime and investigation and the board constituted in this case, the case (FIR No. 75/2022) was being transferred the Jacobabad City SDPO under the close supervision of SSP Dr Sumair Noor.

The Larkana DIG also asked the DSP (investigation officer) to ensure a fair investigation into the case, finalise it on merit and submit a report to the court concerned under intimation to the DIG office.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2023