ISLAMABAD: A court on Sunday handed over senior journalist Ayaz Amir to Shahzad Town police on one day’s physical remand in the murder case of his daughter-in-law Sara Inam.

Mr Amir has been nominated in the murder case and was detained by the police on Saturday night. However, talking to mediapersons outside the court, he said he was the one who had informed the police about the incident and provided the address of the farmhouse to the station house officer (SHO).

He also said he was around 100km away from the place of the incident but was nominated in the case.

Mr Amir’s lawyer tried to convince the magistrate that his client was initially not nominated in the FIR and there was no evidence against him. However, the police sought four-day physical remand, claiming that it was a high-profile case as the deceased was Canadian-born Pakistani and the police wanted to investigate Mr Amir.

Sara Inam, 37, was allegedly murdered by Ayaz Amir’s son and her husband Shahnawaz Amir on Friday. Shahnawaz has already been arrested by the police. On Saturday, a court issued warrants for the arrest of Mr Amir.

Earlier, the police had become the complainant in the case against Shahnawaz despite the availability of a legal heir of the deceased - Sara Inam’s uncle - who later filed a complaint, alleging that Shahnawaz had murdered his niece in connivance with his parents. Police came to know about Ikram Rahim, the uncle of the deceased, after a man approached them and shared the contact number of Mr Rahim with the investigation team.

Later, Mr Rahim submitted a complaint with the police and alleged that Shahnawaz murdered his wife in connivance with his parents.

An initial probe into the case revealed that the deceased arrived in the federal capital three months ago from Abu Dhabi, where she was working, on the invitation of Mr Amir and his wife. Upon her arrival, they took her to Chakwal where she married Shahnawaz.

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

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

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 stated, adding that the suspect’s hands were “soaked in blood” at the time of his arrest.

During the inquiry, the suspect 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.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2022