Leads dry up in suspected murder, drowning case

Investigation team has declared 11-year-old's death accidental but parents believe otherwise

HYDERABAD: After clutching at straws for over eight weeks to implicate the alleged killers of an 11-year-old school boy, the pool of potential incriminating evidence seems to have shrunken. Much to the parent's dismay, a police inquiry, conducted by Karachi special branch inspector Sirajjuddin Lashari on the orders of Sindh IG Allah Dino Khawaja, ruled out any intentional killing.



Inder Vanit Hotwani breathed his last on a ventilator at a hospital in Karachi on April 22, nine days after drowning in the swimming pool of Hyderabad Club on April 13.

Disputing the club's version of the boy's accidental death due to drowning, the parents claim that Inder was murdered while resisting physical assault. The cause of death, according to them, was throttling and forced drowning.

On May 2, Dr Chetan Das Hotwani, the father of the victim, lodged an FIR under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code against the club's administration. Although not nominated by name, two lifeguards, Sajjad Parehar and Nadir Parehar, were arrested and both are still in the jail on judicial remand.

Club administrator Mushtaq Ahmed and Aavarsh alias Sajjad Bhurgari were also named as suspects in the investigation. However, inspector Lashari's inquiry cleared both Ahmed and Bhurgari as possible suspects in the case.



The report, a copy of which is available with The Express Tribune, also suggests removing Section 302 from the FIR and replacing it with Section 319, which pertains to causing someone's death due to negligence. Both Sajjad and Nadir will be tried under the new section if the inquiry committee's recommendations are accepted.

The inquiry also cited the June 6 medical report by Dr Khairunnisa Mukhtiar of Liaquat National Hospital, where Inder was kept on ventilator for eight days. "The family was counseled on the very next day [April 15] regarding the condition of brain death and very poor prognosis but all [life] support was continued on the parent's request," reads the report.

For their part, the parents maintain that the drowning was not accidental, which amounts to murder. After Lashari's inquiry report, Dr Hotwani filed an application in court pleading for an investigation into the alleged deletion of the club's CCTV footage of April 13, the day when Inder drowned. He urged the court to include Ahmed, computer operator Umair Khalid and junior clerk Qaisar Jorge in the investigation.



The incident occurred four days after Dr Hotwani became a member of Hyderabad Club. It also happened to be the first day of swimming for Inder, who, according to his parents, was asked by the swimming coach a day before the incident to reach the pool by 4pm.

According to the parents, the club is hiding that day's CCTV footage. "This case involves a barbaric offence in which the rape of an 11-year-old minor was committed and then he was killed and to save their skin the culprits ... [the club] is causing disappearance of the evidence," reads the plea submitted in the court.

The parents urged the court to order the club to produce its hard disk and CCTV recordings from 1:45 pm to 4:45 pm of April 13.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2016.