ISLAMABAD: A local court on Saturday issued warrants for the arrest of and his wife as it handed over the custody of their son Shahnawaz Amir to the Shahzad Town police on a two-day physical remand in connection with the murder of his wife Sara Inam.

Civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate Mubashir Hassan Chishti took up the application of the police seeking 10 days remand of the suspect as it wanted to recover the evidence in the case.

The police also sought custody of Ayaz Amir and Sameena Shah, parents of the suspect, expressing apprehensions that they might influence the investigation.

During the hearing, the suspect informed the judge that the police took him into custody on Friday from his house in Chak Shahzad. His lawyer Raja Zahoorul Hassan argued that it was a “blind murder”; however, he did not oppose the request for physical remand.

Court sends Shahnawaz on two-day remand for ‘murder of wife’

Police complainant in the case

Meanwhile, the police became a complainant in the case against Shahnawaz Amir despite the availability of a legal heir – Sara Inam’s uncle – and the complaint submitted by him in connection with the murder of his niece.

The autopsy by the police was also conducted in a discreet manner and an FIR was registered on the complaint of a police official in the small hours of Saturday.

Police came to know about Ikram Rahim –the uncle of the deceased – after a man approached them and shared Mr Rahim’s number with the investigation team. In response, Mr Rahim submitted a complaint with the police and alleged that Shahnawaz Amir allegedly murdered his wife in “connivance with his parents”.

The officers part of the investigation told Dawn that as per the uncle, the marriage of Sara Inam with the suspect was kept hidden from her parents which showed their alleged mala fide intentions. The police made the complaint part of the case file as a supplementary statement and added Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) to the FIR under which proceedings against the parents of Shahnawaz Amir were started.

According to police, the warrants against Mr Amir and his wife were obtained under Section 109 and attempts were underway to trace their whereabouts. They have gone into hiding and their cell phones are powered off, a police official claimed and added that efforts were underway to trace the parents of the suspect.

An initial probe into the case revealed that the deceased married the suspect three months ago. She arrived in the federal capital from Abu Dhabi, where she used to work, after Ayaz Amir and his wife – the parents of the suspect – asked her to come to Pakistan. They later took her to Chakwal where she got married with Shahnawaz Amir.

According to the investigation, a quarrel between the deceased and the suspect took place on Thursday over the ownership of a Mercedes car bought by Ms Inam. The police claimed that the suspect transferred the ownership of the car to his name without the knowledge of Ms Inam, which led to a spat between the two. On Friday morning, the couple had a quarrel again which ended in bloodshed.

According to the FIR, Shahzad Town police station SHO sub-inspector Nawazish Ali Khan, who is the complainant in the case, was present on Park Road near Chatha Bakhtawar when he got the information about the murder.

The FIR stated that when the police team reached the farmhouse where the murder had taken place they were received by the mother of the suspect who told them that her son had “murdered his wife during a scuffle”.

As per the FIR, she informed the police that her son was still present in the house. The police managed to enter the house and detained the suspect, it claimed, adding that the suspect’s hands were “soaked in blood” at the time of the arrest.

During the inquiry, the man identified himself as Shahnawaz Amir and told the police that he had murdered his wife with a dumbbell and hid her body in a bathtub in the bathroom, it claimed.

Police recovered the dead body on his information, the FIR said, adding that a wound was found on the head of the deceased. The police team also recovered the murder weapon from the house which was “hidden under a bed”, it added.

Subsequently, the body was moved to the Poly Clinic for autopsy and the murder weapon and the shirt of the accused were sent for a forensic audit.

Inspector General of Police Akbar Nasir Khan, Head of the Police Public Relations Branch DIG Headquarters Awais Ahmed and PRO Junaid Ishaq were approached for comments regarding police’s conduct in the case, but they did not respond despite multiple phone calls and messages.

Published in Dawn, September 25th, 2022