KARACHI, Aug 22: A judicial magistrate on Friday remanded three suspects in police custody till Aug 29 for their alleged involvement in a bank robbery.

The police on Aug 21 had arrested two security guards deployed at the bank, Chindar Wali and Gul Hussain, and Noor Zali, father of another security guard who is stated to be a prime suspect in the case Shah Mohammad.

According to the prosecution, Shah Mohammad along with his associates had looted cash, savings certificates and valuables worth millions of rupees by breaking into the lockers of the Habib Bank Limited’s Mansfield Street branch in the limits of the Preedy police station by using gas-powered welding equipment in the wee hours of Aug 15. Shah Mohammad had written a letter giving an eyewitness account of the crime before fleeing.

A case (FIR No. 574/08) was registered at the Preedy police station. Shah Mohammad is still at large.

Meanwhile, an additional district and sessions court issued notices to the prosecution witnesses directing them to testify in a couple’s murder case on Sept 6.

The judge, Ahmed Saba, had indicted the accused, Asadullah, and his wife, Rashida, on charges of killing a bank manager, Kashif Ali Khan, and his wife, Mehwish, on Aug 5.

However, they pleaded not guilty. The court had summoned the witnesses to record their statements. However, they did not turn up on Friday.

Kashif Ali Khan, a bank manager, and his wife Mehwish were found shot dead in their house in Taiser Town on Nov 21, 2007 in the Surjani Town police limits. The police had arrested the accused after initial investigation and during the interrogation, both the accused had confessed to having killed the couple.

The investigation officer in the charge-sheet said that Asadullah and his wife, Rashida, had recorded their confessional statements during the interrogation, admitted to having killed the couple. An unlicenced TT pistol was also recovered from the possession of Asadullah while the involvement of Kaleem and Shakila had yet to be confirmed, it added.

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 ago in his hometown in Multan, but his wife was too young at the time of their marriage and the couple decided not to have a baby for some time.

A few months later the suspect came to know about his wife’s pregnancy. When he asked her about it, she said that 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.

It further stated that Asadullah had promised her to take revenge. For this purpose, Asadullah along with his wife, Rashida, sister-in-law Shakila and younger brother Kaleem 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 suicide note on the body of Kashif, it added.

However, the court on Jan 9 had discharged Kaleemullah and Shakila from the case since their counsel had moved an application and pleaded for the acquittal of his clients as the prosecution had failed to come up with any incriminating evidence against them to prove their involvement in the case.