HYDERABAD, June 9: The Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench, on Wednesday directed the regional police officer to transfer investigation into the death of a pregnant mother to an honest and competent police officer.

The order was passed on a petition, filed by Sonan, mother of the deceased, Zeenat. The court directed for compliance of its order in two weeks. The petitioner expressed her distrust on investigating officer Sujan Singh Thakur and the Sanghar DPO.

She said that her daughter and respondent Qadir Bux had married eight years back. She said that Zeenat died on March 26 in mysterious circumstances while she was staying with her husband, and Gulab, Haseena and Fatima.

She alleged that the respondents had been maltreating her daughter. Her in-laws did not allow her to meet her mother and other relatives. Two years back, she had been beaten up mercilessly by her husband and Gulab, causing her miscarriage, the petitioner further said.

Ms Sonan said that when she came to know about her daughter's sufferings, she brought her to the Daulatpur taluka. She added that respondent Tooh, son of Manjhi, gave an assurance to her and her daughter that she would not be tortured and she would be given due respect.

She said that in order to keep the marriage intact she allowed Zeenat to go with Qadir Bux. The petitioner alleged that her daughter was murdered by her husband and in-laws by giving her some pesticide.

She said that respondent Dr Kanta of the Sanghar Civil Hospital conducted the autopsy under instructions from private respondents and in absence of her and her relatives. The autopsy report was fabricated to cover the murder, she further alleged.

The woman said that she approached authorities concerned for conducting a fair investigation into the matter but to no avail. She said that the case was closed on the basis of the postmortem report and statements of Haseena and Fatima, terming the case a suicide.

She said that the private respondents were influential and, in connivance with police, they wanted to hush up the case by showing it a suicidal case. She told the court that police refused to register a murder case against the respondents and accepted what she termed a biased and manipulated medical report and statements of the respondents.

The petitioner prayed the court to order reinvestigation of the case by an independent authority and direct police to register her FIR. Investigating officer Thakur in his statement said that as per statements of Miral, Gulab, and others, Zeenat had committed suicide. He complained that the petitioner did not cooperate with him. He said that the investigation was still pending as the final postmortem report had not been issued.