GUJRAT: The forensic and autopsy reports in the case of Sana Cheema — an Italian woman of Pakistani origin who was feared to have been killed last month for ‘honour’ in her native village of Kot Fateh Din, situated near Mungowal town of Gujrat district — have revealed that she indeed was strangled to death.

After receiving the forensic and autopsy reports, police booked the victim’s father, Ghulam Mustafa Cheema, and brother, Adnan Cheema, for murder and arrested them. Her uncle, Mazhar Iqbal Cheema, had earlier been released and his name was dropped from the case.

The autopsy was conducted by Dr Komal Ishaq from the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital. A magistrate had allowed the police to exhume the remains of the victim on April 25, and the samples collected from the body were sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) for forensic analysis.

Father and brother of Pakistani-origin Italian woman booked for murder, arrested

According to the report, the victim’s voice box was swollen and the right cornua of her hyoid bone had been dislocated. The report also suggested regurgitation after experts found three pieces of green chilli in her sound box. The PFSA did not find any sign of poison or drugs in Ms Cheema’s body.

Gujrat District Police Officer (DPO) Jahanzeb Nazeer Khan told Dawn he had found out about the case through social media. He explained there was a news report in an Italian newspaper about Ms Cheema being killed for ‘honour’, which he had gotten translated into English.

He said the only useful details they had found from the newspaper were the name of the deceased and mention of Gujrat district.

The Gujrat Saddar circle police had been tasked with locating the whereabouts of the victim, which they managed to do on April 23.

He said police had suspected that the woman might have been murdered, but her family claimed that she had died of natural causes and was buried in the village graveyard on April 18.

The DPO said the PFSA report and the autopsy report issued by the doctor had confirmed that Ms Cheema had died after being strangled.

He said Ms Cheema had been killed for ‘honour’. The case would further be investigated after which a report would be submitted to the trial court.

Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code (punishment after waiver or compounding of right of qisas in qatl-i-amd) was being added to the case, the DPO said.

Police had earlier taken her father, brother and uncle into custody for questioning but had not pressed any charges against them as they were waiting for the results of the forensic report.

Police said that Ghulam Mustafa had brought Ms Cheema back to Pakistan to get her married.

According to the victim’s relatives, her reluctance to the match had led to a confrontation with another family in the village, who then rejected the marriage proposal.

They claimed that Ms Cheema was feeling so dejected that she had stopped eating and had fallen ill and died.

The Italian newspaper, Giornale di Brescia, reported that she had been killed for ‘honour’. Several members of the Pakistani community in Brescia, Italy, had held a demonstration demanding to know the truth about her death.

The victim’s friends claimed that she had wanted to marry someone in Italy, against her family’s wishes.

The news reports further alleged that her parents had been forcing her to marry someone in the family in the days leading up to her murder.

According to the Italian media, the victim wanted to marry a man from Brescia who, like her, was a second-generation immigrant with Italian citizenship.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2018