Zeeshan murder case: Premeditated murder charges against Rangers’ man dropped

KARACHI:

A district and sessions court dropped the charges of premeditated murder after overruling a judicial magistrate's order against a paramilitary soldier booked in connection with the killing of a man near Nagan Chowrangi.

Thirty-year-old Zeeshanuddin was killed by the Rangers official, Rahim Noor, while he was engaged in a brawl with his estranged wife, Shafia, near Nagan Chowrangi on February 28. The widow and the deceased's sister had filed separate cases.

While dropping the premeditated murder charges, the Central district and sessions judge, Javed Ahmed Keerio, set August 8 for framing charges against the suspects.

In the first case, the paramilitary soldier was booked for unintentional murder on the complaint of the widow and the court had granted bail to the suspect as the offence was bailable. The second case was registered against the Rangers official and the widow on the complaint of Zeeshan's sister, Tasneem Shahid, who said the offence was committed at the behest of the widow.

On April 24, a judicial magistrate, Fida Hussain Abbasi, had converted the unintentional murder case into premeditated murder one against the paramilitary solider after turning down the final investigation report of police into the case. Both Noor and Shafia are on bail in the second case.

The suspects had gone to the Sindh High Court against the order of the judicial magistrate and the SHC had asked the trial court to appraise the evidence available on record and decide the applicable section before the indictment.

Tasneem Shahid's counsel, Muhammad Amir Warraich, said that he would challenge the order in the Sindh High Court as the magistrate had dismissed the investigation officer's final investigation report. In the order, the magistrate had stated that he had paid full consideration to the facts of the case and come to the conclusion that there was sufficient evidence as well as statement of witnesses to exclusively try the suspects under section 302 of the PPC.The suspects' interim pre-arrest bails are still intact.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 24^th, 2014.