‘Murder’ of sister: Woman takes brother-in-law to court

Police pressuring petitioner to withdraw case against influential suspect

LAHORE: A woman has gone to court seeking registration of a murder case against her brother-in-law for allegedly killing her sister to marry another woman.

An additional district and sessions judge has fixed December 14 for recording evidence in the private complaint filed by Nargis Affan, the slain woman’s sister.

The petitioner has sought court orders against police high-ups to arrest the man, who is working as the chief financial and accounts officer at the Cabinet Division.

Through her counsel Advocate Muhammad Qasim, Nargis submitted that police officials were pressuring her to withdraw the case as the suspect was an influential government officer.

Police, she said, told her that they could not help her as officers were pressuring them to get the case settled out of court.

The petitioner filed the complaint under sections 302, 109 and 201 of the Pakistan Penal Code, contending that her deceased sister Tabinda was married to Farooq Mohsin, who was working as a bureaucrat back then.

A few weeks before the death of her sister, he was suspended from his post of director-general for income tax audit for Punjab and frontier regions, and made an officer on special duty. Nargis accused the suspect of fighting with her sister over petty issues and maintaining illicit relations with other women as well.

On October 27, 2015, Farooq called up Nargis’s husband informing him that Tabinda had died. When the couple went to his house, the suspect told them his wife had killed herself with a gunshot.

However, the couple doubted the suspect’s version and registered a case against him and his brother Aftab Mohsin, who is a doctor.

The petitioner claims the suspect confessed to the murder before her family on December 13, 2015 and also admitted to portraying the murder as suicide. He also requested the family for not starting legal proceedings against him and his brother.

When Nargis approached the case investigation officer as to why the suspects were not arrested, the police officer suggested that she withdraws the case against him.

After recording the initial statements, the judge summoned both the suspects to face the prosecution. On Saturday, four prosecution witnesses had appeared in court to record their statements but the counsel for the accused sought adjournment.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 20^th, 2016.