Mir Raza murder case: SHC reserves order on family's plea seeking JIT

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea seeking the formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) in the Mir Raza Ali murder case.

Ali, a 25-year-old Karachi-based businessman, was found dead with a gunshot wound in Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he was reported missing on July 28. His family, which has raised questions about the case’s investigation and accused authorities of trying to bury the facts, had moved the SHC last week against a decision of the provincial government to form a judicial commission and sought the formation of a JIT instead.

However, authorities proceeded with the commission, with Justice Omar Sial appointed as its head.

A two-member constitutional bench, headed by Justice Adnan Karim Memon, took up the family’s petition on Monday.

The Sindh advocate general (AG), prosecutor general, Karachi police surgeon, police officials, the case’s investigating officer, Ali’s family, and their counsel Jibran Nasir appeared before the court during the hearing.

Nasir reiterated the demand for a JIT, following which the court enquired about the difference between a JIT and a judicial commission.

To that, the state’s lawyer said, “A JIT will investigate the case from various angles while a commission can provide assistance in the investigation”.

Nasir reminded the court that to investigate the Gul Plaza blaze, a JIT and a commission were formed separately.

He further alleged that police personnel had destroyed evidence in the case, adding that this was also mentioned in his plea.

Nasir also accused police of “spreading false news through the media” and added that no statements were recorded several days after the case was registered and that the “crime scene was set on fire”.

“It was set on fire to search for a bullet, just as the crime scene was washed in Rawalpindi,” he said, seemingly referring to the washing of the site of the killing of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

He said no action was taken against the police officers “who destroyed the case and tampered with the evidence”.

“We had demanded departmental action,” Nasir said, adding that it was the investigation team’s job to find the suspects.

The Sindh advocate general informed the court that the “commission’s function was to investigate the negligence (in the investigation)”.

Nasir maintained that “the SC has in the past also granted permission to form a JIT as well in case of administrative sabotage”.

“There is sabotage at the highest level of the police in this case,” he said, recalling that police had declared the case shut “even before Ali’s grave was dug” — a reference to the exhumation of Ali’s body for a second autopsy after the Karachi police surgeon pointed out loopholes in the first post-mortem report.

When the court observed that the government had already formed a commission, Nasir argued that the commission would be supported by the “same team that has failed to trace the suspects even after a month”.

For his part, the Sindh AG clarified that the provincial government was “not against the family”.

Following these arguments, the court reserved its order on the petition.