KARACHI: Police told a court on Monday that, amid repeated notices, two suspects booked in a case involving the death of Dr Maha Shah in the Defense Housing Authority were refusing giving their DNA samples.
The police had initially said that by shooting herself in her DHA home on Aug 18, 2020, the 24-year-old doctor, practising at a private hospital in Clifton, allegedly committed suicide.
Later, in a case involving poisoning a person to death, the police booked her friends, Junaid Khan, Waqas Hussain Rizvi and Dr Irfan Qureshi, along with two others.
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On Monday, the case was brought before Judicial Magistrate (South) Tehmina Yasir for a final investigative report submitted by the investigating officer according to Section 173 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
A magistrate gives IO more time to file the final investigation report
The IO reported that the suspects were not cooperating with Junaid Khan and Waqas Rizvi in the investigation of the case.
He further said that they were regularly asked to appear before the appropriate department to provide samples of their DNA to balance the same with the victim’s, but they refused doing so.
He noticed that fresh notices were sent to both suspects asking for their DNA samples to be given, but they refused to appear; therefore, the investigation was still unfinished and the court did not request a final investigation report.
The IO demanded that the court give him more time to collect the suspects’ DNA samples and file a full investigative report along with the chemical analysis report from the laboratory.
He maintained that the DNA samples of other offenders had already been collected and sent to the laboratories for chemical examination.
In September, after their interim pre-arrest bail was recalled and appeals for bail confirmation were denied, the two defendants fled from court.
From the case “for the time being” before the submission of the final inquiry report by the IO, a judicial magistrate had already released the lone detained defendant, Dr Qureshi. Post-arrest bail against a security of Rs500,000 was issued.
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Shahid Rehman, said to be affiliated with the Amn Committee of the Prohibited Peoples (PAC), was placed before the administrative court.
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The IO told the court that the suspect was reportedly embroiled in 16 criminal offences, including kidnapping, attempted assassination and terrorism, awaiting prosecution before numerous courts in which he had secured bail.
He sought 14-day physical remand of the suspect to complete the investigation and other legal formalities.
However, the judge remanded the suspect in police custody till Jan 22 with a direction to produce him on the next date along with an investigation report.
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