Mir Raza murder case: Judicial commission records statements, MLO says he was ‘under no pressure’ during autopsy

KARACHI: The judicial commission formed to investigate the circumstances surrounding the murder of Mir Raza Ali and possible negligence in the case on Tuesday recorded the testimonies of a medico-legal officer (MLO), police officials, two volunteers of a charity organisation, gardeners and members of the aggrieved family.

The one-member commission, headed by Sindh High Court Justice Omar Sial, also summoned several other individuals, including the victim’s business partner, friends and police officials, to appear before it on Sept 3.

The provincial government formed the judicial commission to probe the circumstances leading to the death of young entrepreneur Mir Raza, determine whether there was any negligence on the part of medical and police officials during the investigation, and make recommendations for further investigation, forensic analysis or legal and departmental action.

Medico-legal officer (MLO) Dr Osama Sheikh, who conducted the first autopsy, appeared before the commission and said he had not been under any influence or pressure and had not mentioned suicide in his report.

He also deposed that, after completing his MBBS in 2016, he was appointed through the Sindh Public Service Commission in 2019. He joined the police surgeon’s office in 2021 and was posted as an MLO at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre.

Responding to a question from the commission, Dr Sheikh said he had so far conducted around 100 post-mortems. He added that a sweeper used to be present during such procedures.

Justice Sial also asked why burn marks on the deceased’s hands and other parts of the body, as well as fractures, had not been mentioned in his report. Dr Sheikh replied that there were no burn marks and that the change in the skin’s colour was due to decomposition. He also said he had found no visible fractures.

The commission expressed serious displeasure over the MLO’s failure to provide satisfactory answers, questioning how the body had decomposed so quickly and why he had been able to identify only a bullet wound during the entire procedure.

Justice Sial further asked the MLO whether the autopsy had been conducted by the sweeper. He also pointed out that the final report of the first autopsy differed from the initial report and that the handwriting in the two reports did not match.

The MLO maintained that he had conducted the autopsy and acknowledged that the handwriting in both reports was his. He explained that the final report of the first post-mortem was issued after the body had been exhumed and a second autopsy conducted, as well as after the police surgeon had raised 14 objections to the first post-mortem.

He also maintained that he had prepared the initial autopsy report without any influence or pressure and had not mentioned suicide in it.

“On Aug 9, I was called to the Chief Minister’s House, where DIG Farrukh Ali Lanjar asked me to record a statement or provide information about the case. However, I refused to do so in the absence of the relevant documents,” it said.

The MLO further told the commission that the second investigation team had recorded his statement on Aug 17. He added that the body was around 24 to 36 hours old and that anaesthetics had been detected in the blood.

The two nursery employees, Yasir and Qaiser, who had informed the police about the body, deposed that they called the police helpline (15) shortly after spotting it. They said two policemen arrived on a motorcycle about 15 minutes later, followed by a police van.

They also told the commission that the police recorded their statements under Section 161 of the CrPC three days later. The employees added that police officers used to be present at the nursery’s main entrance for around 20 days a month.

Two Edhi Foundation volunteers, Mohsin and Javed, also appeared before the commission and testified that they had reached the site at around 1pm after receiving information about the body from their head office.

They said that upon reaching the scene, they found the body lying face down. After turning it over, they noticed a bullet wound on the victim’s body.

Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Nadeem Mughal told the commission that he was performing his duties at Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station when he was directed to proceed to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC).

“I handed over the samples collected during the autopsy to the SIO of Ferozabad police station, Shabbir Laghari,” he added.

ASI Azhar Abbas, who was also posted at Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station, said he shared pictures of the body with the SHO and duty officer after reaching the crime scene.

Another policeman, Mohammad Arif, said he was a device operator for the Talash (search) app and had attempted to record the victim’s fingerprints, but could not do so because of the decomposition.

The victim’s parents, Mir Hussain Ali Khan and Mariam Hussain, and his sister, Alishba Khan, were also present during the hearing along with their lawyer, Jibran Nasir. They provided further details about the incident.

The case

The case has been mired in controversy since the beginning. While Ali’s family was convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police had initially built the case around the possibility that he died by suicide.

Days after the recovery of Ali’s body, Dr Syed had told Geo News that the post-mortem findings in the case had raised several questions, as some observations in the report did not appear to match the available photographs.

On August 6, a Karachi court took up an application by Ali’s father, allowed the exhumation of his body, ordered the formation of a medico-legal board for the purpose and directed that a second autopsy of Ali’s body be conducted.

The Sindh health department then constituted an eight-member board, with police surgeon Dr Syed as the convener. However, in the early hours of August 7, the board was reconstituted through an order issued by the director general of the Sindh health department.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new five-member board, its members were changed.

But Ali’s family rejected the new board, which also resulted in the deferment of the planned exhumation on Friday. Meanwhile, the counsel for Ali’s family, Nasir, accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts.

The Sindh government then restored the original medical board, following which Ali’s body was exhumed on August 8.

A day later, the Sindh inspector general of police’s (IG) office notified the reconstitution of the investigating team probing Ali’s death while Karachi Additional IG Azad Khan transferred the investigation into Ali’s murder to Zaman Town police station from Ferozabad Police Station, where the case was registered.

The order for the probe team’s reconstitution also showed that a murder charge had been added to the first information report.

The same day, the Sindh government decided to seek a judicial commission for the case’s investigation, only to defer the plan a day later after Ali’s family said they had made no such demand and had faith in the new investigation team.

On Aug 19, Ali’s parents, Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain, wrote to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, seeking his “direct supervision of the murder investigation”. They also urged the chief minister to order an investigation and departmental inquiry into the previous investigation team and immediately suspend the officers involved.

The provincial government acknowledged the letter and announced the decision on Aug 23 to form a judicial commission to determine whether the investigation in the case was being conducted impartially and to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ali’s death.

However, soon after the announcement, the counsel for Ali’s family raised objections and later approached the Sindh High Court (SHC).

The petition was filed on August 24 in objection to the provincial government’s decision to form a judicial commission and sought the formation of an independent and multi-agency JIT “comprising officers who have had no previous involvement in the case” in place of the commission.

The commission held the first hearing on Friday and summoned MLO Sheikh. It had also issued notices to the deceased’s family, their lawyer and a provincial government focal person.