KARACHI, Jan 9: The civil judge and judicial magistrate, West, Shafiqullah M. Hassan, on Wednesday discharged two accused from a double-murder case due to lack of evidence against them. Defence counsel Maqbool-ur-Rahman submitted an application to the court, seeking acquittal of Shakila and Kaleemullah, arguing that the prosecution had not provided any solid evidence against them and had also failed to prove their involvement in the case. The court accepted the application and discharged the names of both the accused from the case.
According to the prosecution, Kashif Ali Khan, a bank manager, and his wife Mehwish were found shot dead in their Taisar Town home in the Surjani Town police limits on Nov 21. The couple had got married 10 months earlier. A note saying, “We are killing ourselves on our own”, and a TT pistol were also found at the scene.
Shakila was booked on Nov 27, 2007 with his sister Rashida and brother-in-law Asadullah on the charges of killing the couple. Later they were sent to jail custody while Kaleemullah absconded.
The investigation officer, sub-inspector Ghulam Akbar Narejo of the Surjani Town police station submitted an interim charge-sheet in court on Dec 14. He said in the charge-sheet that Asadullah and his wife Rashida had recorded their confessional statements during the interrogation and admitted to having killed the couple. An unlicensed TT pistol was also seized from the possession of Asadullah while the involvement of Kaleemullah and Shakila had not been confirmed.
According to the confessional statement of the accused, Kashif and Asadullah became friends when the latter was posted as a security guard at the bank. Kashif had helped Asadullah in his marriage around 15 months earlier in his hometown in Multan, but his wife was very young at the time of their marriage and the couple decided not to have children for some time. A few months later the suspect came to know that his wife was pregnant. When he asked her about it, she said she had once gone to Kashif’s home to see his wife Mehwish, who was not at home then. She said Kashif taking advantage of the situation raped her, added the statement.
It further stated that Asadullah had promised her to take her revenge. For this purpose, Asadullah along with his wife Rashida, sister-in-law Shakila and younger brother Kaleemullah reached the victims’ house on Nov 21. They made the couple drink milk laced with heavy tranquillizers. The suspect first shot dead Kashif and then Mehwish. They later tried to make the double murder look like a suicide by placing a note on Kashif’s body, it added.
Surjani Town police had registered a case (FIR 384/07) of murder under Section-302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code on behalf of the state when the relatives of the victims refused to lodge a case. The final charge sheet in the case has not yet been submitted.