Shahzeb Khan murder: Shahrukh Jatoi sent to juvenile prison by ATC

Medical report confirms Shahrukh is a minor; Prime suspect and co-accused sent on three-day remand.

KARACHI:

An anti-terrorism court in Karachi sent Shahrukh Jatoi, the prime suspect in the Shahzeb Khan murder case, on a three-day judicial remand to a juvenile prison on Saturday after his medical report indicated he is a minor.

The decision to send Shahrukh to a juvenile facility was taken after the investigation officer, Muhammad Mobin, produced his bone ossification test report to the court.

“As per ossification of his bones, Shahrukh Jatoi is 17-18 years old, closer to eighteen, as reported by Professor of the Radiology of the Civil Hospital Karachi,” stated the report, signed by police surgeon Dr Jalil Qadir.



Shahrukh was sent to a the city’s juvenile prison– Youthful Offenders Industrial School – on a three-day remand by the judge in charge of Anti-Terrorism Court-III, Bashir Ahmed Khoso.

Co-accused, Siraj Talpur, 22, his younger brother Sajjad Talpur, 21 and their 23-year-old servant Ghulam Murtaza Lashari were also sent on remand in the city’s central jail until January 29.

According to the remand papers, the investigating officer had requested an extension to complete the investigation, arrest absconders Asif Lund and Salman Jatoi, and finalise other legal formalities.



All those being held are accused of involvement in the murder of 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan over a dispute in the affluent Defence locality of Karachi on December 25, 2012.

Officers said during the course of their investigation, Shahrukh claimed that the gun used to kill Shahzeb was thrown into the sea near a bus stop in Defence.

However, information later provided by Siraj Talpur led to the recovery of an unlicensed 9mm gun and a magazine loaded with four bullets in a car in Defence on January 3.



Mobin told the judge that after the recovery of the pistol, another FIR (32/2013) was registered under section 13-E of the Arms Ordinance 1965 against Shahrukh at the Darakhshan police station in Karachi.

Judge Khoso directed the investigating officer to submit a charge-sheet during the next hearing on January 30.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2013.