HYDERABAD, Nov 5: A judge of Anti-Terrorism Court  on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to Mohammad Saleem Qambrani, senior civil judge of Jacobabad, for a sum of Rs100,000 in a double murder case of a newly-wed couple.

The judge’s counsel Pir Bux Bhurgari advocate argued before the court that the contents of the FIR lodged against Mr Qambrani were self-contradictory. The FIR had been lodged without seeking permission from the court for nominating his client who was a sitting senior civil judge, he said.

He said the case had several legal flaws, police papers were not submitted to the court and wrong sections were cited in the case, which did not fall in the purview of ATC. The FIR could be divided into three parts but its contents were conflicting, he said.

The court granted pre-arrest bail to the accused who was earlier granted protective bail by the Larkana circuit bench of the Sindh High Court.

REMAND: The court also remanded in police custody Ahmed Detho, father of deceased Samia Detho, his nephew Sikandar Detho, Rahim, Haji Detho and Bilawal Qambrani, son of the civil judge Mohammad Saleem Qambrani, in the same case for another three days.

Tandojam police had lodged the case of double murder against 22 people on a complaint lodged by Ismail Sheikh who claimed the accused had killed his brother Ishtiaq Sheikh and his wife on Aug 23 this year.

He said that his brother had angered the accused by marrying Samia Detho against their will. They lived in Mori Mangar village in the limits of Pabban police station and got married after leaving the village for Karachi in November last year, he said.

EXHUMATION: Mr Sheikh filed a fresh application in the sessions’ court on Monday for exhumation of Samia’s body after judicial magistrate-VIII refused to exhume it on Nov 3 following some confusion created by the accused.

The accused kept changing their statements about location of the grave, forcing the magistrate to stop supervision of the exhumation.

The accused identified different sites before the judge as those of Samia’s graves and the SHO of Pabban police station and DSP also insisted it was the same grave which was earlier identified by another main accused Haji Detho but the magistrate insisted the complainant should file a fresh application in this regard.

A medical board will conduct autopsy on Samia’s body and the court will pass an order on the exhumation on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, remains of Ishtiaq’s body which were exhumed earlier on Oct 27 would be examined by a medical board on Tuesday in the presence of a judicial magistrate.

The remains were preserved in the Liaquat University Hospital Hyderabad. The accused Haji Detho had led police to the site where the body had been buried.