ISLAMABAD: The trial court judge on Wednesday reprimanded the capital police for issuing clarification about cross examination of investigating officer in Noor Mukadam case, as the defence counsel Akram Qureshi continued to point out loopholes in the investigation.

The investigating officer in the case conceded before the additional district and sessions judge, Atta Rabbani, that he did not register FIR against Zahir Jaffer under Section 324 [attempted murder] for critically injuring therapy worker Amjad Mehmood.

At the outset, the defence counsel criticised the clarification issued by the Islamabad police on misinterpreted media reports about cross examination of the investigating officer, Abdul Sattar.

The judge asked the public prosecutor to convey his displeasure over the clarification to the inspector general.

The police in a press release had clarified that stories appearing in print and social media gave the impression that they were trying to give benefit to the principal suspect, Zahir Jaffer.

The police said the investigating officer replied ‘no’ when he was asked during the trial on Monday if the trousers of the accused were stained with blood.

The police explained that there was no blood stain on the trousers since he was wearing shorts but the shirt of the accused had blood stains of the victim as per the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) report.

The PFSA report, however, confirmed that Noor Mukadam was raped before being killed and that she made every possible attempt to save her life. The accused’s DNA was recovered under the nails of the victim.

Besides, the shirt worn by and recovered from Zahir was stained with Noor’s blood and her DNA was also found on his shirt.

Defence Counsel Akram Qureshi questioned the investigating officer whether he had sent a request to PFSA for conducting DNA of therapy worker Mehmood, the investigating officer replied in the negative.

In response to another question the investigating officer replied that he did not seek medico-legal certificate (MLC) for Mehmood which was mandatory to register FIR against Zahir Jaffer for attempting to kill the therapy worker when he was trying to enter the room through a ladder.

The investigating officer, on the other hand, nominated Mehmood as an accused in the case. He told the court that after the occurrence he visited the hospital multiple times to record the statement of the injured worker but he was unstable and his father was not interested in lodging the FIR.

He further said that later on Mehmood told him that he was not interested in registration of the FIR for the time being.

The investigating officer admitted that he did not record statement of any independent witness in the vicinity of Zahir Jaffer’s house, adding that there was no message in Noor’s mobile phone that she sent to any of her relatives for her rescue.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2022