KARACHI, Jan 11: The additional district and sessions judge, Central, Tasneem Sultana, on Friday indicted the father of the groom in a newly-wed couple’s murder case.

Accused Shaikh Abdul Majeed pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case. The court fixed Jan 28 as the next date of hearing. The judge summoned the complainant and all the prosecution witnesses to appear in court in order to record their statements on the next hearing.

The accused, through his counsel, has moved a bail application in the court. The hearing on the bail application would be held on Jan 21.

According to the prosecution, Hafiz Shaikh Mohammad Azeem and his bride Beenish were found dead under mysterious circumstance the next morning of their wedding night in their North Nazimabad apartment in the Taimuria police limits on Aug 11, 2007.

Earlier, the court had rejected the pre-arrest bail application of Shaikh Abdul Majeed and sent him in jail custody.

On Oct 27 investigation officer Khalid Khan of the New Karachi police station submitted an interim charge-sheet to Judicial Magistrate 12 (Central) Abdul Zahoor Chandio, in which he nominated Shaikh Abdul Majeed as the main accused in the case.

Referring to Abdul Majeed’s interview on a TV channel, the IO said Shaikh Majeed had himself admitted his presence up to 5am in the couple’s room, adding that Beenish was also murdered within three minutes between 4am and 5am by breaking her jaws and smothering her with a pillow.

On Nov 24, the court of judicial magistrate 12 (Central) had directed the SSP investigation (Central) to reinvestigate the case and submit the final charge-sheet on Nov 30. Earlier, the court had also issued many notices to the IO directing him to submit the final charge-sheet of the case. Despite that the final charge-sheet was not submitted. However, the court had considered the interim charge-sheet submitted by the IO on Oct 27 as the final one and sent the case to the court of district and sessions judge, Central, for further action.

The case (FIR 391/07) was registered on the complaint of the family of Beenish at the Taimuria police station under Section of 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Earlier, the former IO in the case, Mohammad Ashraf of the Taimuria police station, filed three progress reports in the court on different dates, but following a court order, police high-ups assigned the case to senior IO Khalid Khan of the New Karachi police station.

On Sept 20, Abdul Majeed, through his counsel, submitted an application to District and Sessions Judge (Central) Abdul Maalik under Section 22-A(6) (iii) (iv) of CrPC. The applicant had requested the transfer of the case’s investigation to any other zone, citing his lack of confidence in the investigation process.

Following his nomination in the case, Abdul Majeed had rejected the police version and expressed his dissatisfaction over the investigation process, and said he had already requested the court for shifting the investigation from Zone West to any other zone.

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