Mir Raza murder case: Karachi police surgeon among 4 told to appear before judicial commission tomorrow

KARACHI: A judicial commission on Monday summoned the Karachi police surgeon and another member included in the medical board that oversaw the exhumation of Mir Raza Ali’s body — which was found with a gunshot wound in July in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar — at the next hearing.

The murder case has been mired in conspiracy, with the 25-year-old victim’s family accusing police of trying to bury the facts and law enforcers initially trying to build the case around the possibility of suicide.

Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiyya Syed had previously also pointed out flaws in the findings of Ali’s first autopsy, following which his body was exhumed and a second post-mortem was conducted, whose findings ruled out the possibility of suicide.

A one-member judicial commission headed by Sindh High Court Justice Omar Sial, formed to investigate the circumstances and possible negligence in the case, has been holding hearings on the matter.

According to the commission’s order issued after today’s hearing, Ferozabad Station House Officer (SHO) Adeel Afzal and Gulistan-i-Jauhar police station Head Moharir Zeeshan have also been asked to appear before the commission at the next hearing on Sept 8.

SHO Afzal is deployed at the Ferozabad police station, where the case was initially registered under charges of kidnapping following Ali’s disappearance on July 28. His body was found a day later, and following Ali’s second autopsy, the probe was transferred to the Zaman Town police station in August, with murder charges added to the FIR.

Head Moharir Zeeshan is among those who visited the crime scene after Ali’s body was found.

In the order, Justice Sial stated that he had “realised during this hearing that the initial witnesses’ statements have not been provided to me. I have drawn an adverse inference from this”.

He recalled that on the first hearing held by the commission, the Sindh police was directed to provide the statements of all witnesses recorded under Section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“However, this has not been done,” Justice Sial noted.

He added that a notice was issued to Sindh Deputy Inspector General (Crime and Investigation) Amir Farooqui — who also heads the new police team formed to probe the case — after which two statements from Ali’s friends, Abdul Razique and Muhammad Hasem, recorded on August 1, were provided by the Sindh Police.

“They say that there is no other document missing from the record after the submission of these two statements. The notice to DIG Amir Farooqui is therefore withdrawn on the assurance of the Home additional secretary that no further documents are missing,” the order read.

The additional secretary was also instructed to probe whether there were forensic, ballistic and chemical reports which had not been provided to the commission, and if there were any such reports, their copies should be submitted in a sealed envelope.

The case

Days after the recovery of Ali’s body on July 29, 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.

On Sept 2, the SHC dismissed a petition filed by Ali’s family, seeking the formation of a JIT to probe his murder, observing that constituting such a body was the “prerogative of the government”.

Meanwhile, the final report of Ali’s second post-mortem for the Mir Raza Ali murder case confirmed that his death was caused by a gunshot wound to the back.

“Death occurred due to cardiac rupture consequent to perforating firearm injury of the chest,” the report stated, adding that the entry wound was on the posterior thorax (back) and the exit wound on the anterior thorax (front of the chest).

“The findings are inconsistent with suicide as the manner of death,” it confirmed.