Mother of prime suspect in Sara murder case arrested

Islamabad police take Samina Shah into custody after court dismisses her bail plea

ISLAMABAD:

The Islamabad police arrested Samina Shah, mother of the main accused, Shahnawaz Amir, in the Sara Inam murder case on Wednesday after a local court dismissed her application for an extension of bail.

During the hearing of the bail application of the main accused’s mother before the court of Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Sheikh Sohail, the victim’s father Engineer Inamur Rahim appeared along with his counsel Rao Abdul Rahim while the applicant also appeared before the court along with her counsel Arsal Amjad Hashmi.

The investigation officer presented the record of the case before the court. The applicant’s counsel contended before the court that Samina helped the police in arresting his son. “Her only fault is that she was present in the farmhouse while there is no fingerprint or other evidence against her,” the counsel argued.

The court observed that the time when the applicant informed her husband and the police about the murder was not available on record. At this, the complainant’s counsel, Rao Abdul Rahim, adopted the stance that the doctor mentioned the inordinate delay between the time of death and postmortem. “The post-mortem took place at 1 o'clock while the doctor mentioned that she died 12 to 24 hours ago. This means either the death occurred at 1 o'clock in the night or at 1 o'clock during the day time on the previous day,” Rahim argued.

The complainant’s counsel went on to question the statement of the accused, admitting that the victim had arrived at her residence a day prior to the murder. “Because she wants to tell what happened to her? Why did the CCTV camera stop working two days ago? Whether Samina’s role is limited to the extent of aiding [the murder] or she is also involved in the murder will come to light in the investigation,” he contended.

The court remarked: “Why was the accused in contact with the victim? Why did she come suddenly? Did Samina not know? WhatsApp records prove that Shahnawaz has divorced Sara.”

After hearing the arguments, the court rejected Samina's bail application. In her bail petition, Samina had pleaded that she had “nothing to do with the incident” and nor was she an eye-witness to the crime.

It should be noted that on September 23, 2022, Shahnawaz Amir, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, killed his Canadian-born 37-year-old wife Sara Inam in a farmhouse in Islamabad's Chak Shehzad suburb, where the suspect lived along with his mother.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2022.