Man acquitted of Canadian national’s murder

Main accused is still at large and court has declared him a proclaimed offender


Our Correspondent December 09, 2017
PHOTO: FILE

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge acquitted a man of the murder charges of Canadian national Rajwindar Kaur Gill who visited Pakistan in 2012 for a diamond auction in Lahore.

Judge Irfan Basra acquitted Hafiz Shahzad after the prosecution failed to establish charges levelled against him while the main accused in Gill’s murder case Shahid Ghazanfar, alias Karishan Rai was still at large. On August 31, 2016, father of the deceased Sardar Sikandar Singh Gill was cross examined by the defence counsel who asked a series of questions. The father had said it was tantamount to humiliating him that his daughter was murdered and he was being told that he filed a fake case of her death.

The father claimed his daughter was murdered by accused Shahid alias Krishna Rai and Shahzad.

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The then defence counsel Advocate Malik Arshad had asked Sardar Sikandar Singh Gill whether he knew the IMEI number of the cellphone of his daughter. When Gill quoted the IMEI number, the counsel asked whether he knew his own cellphone’s IMEI number, that of his other daughters or family members. Upon which Gill said he did not remember the IMEI number of other family members.

Gill said he got the IMEI number of his missing daughter from the Canadian police. The defence counsel claimed that Rajwindar Kaur was in Canada and she was living there.

Sardar Sikandar Singh Gill travelled from Canada to record his statement before the court. He had told the court that his daughter informed the family that she was going to Pakistan to meet a man whom she treated like a brother. The father said Gill reached Pakistan on August 25, 2012 and since then she was not in contact with the family. Later, he reached Pakistan and submitted an application before the police station concerned, seeking an FIR against accused Shahid alias Krishna Rai and Shahzad who allegedly had abducted the girl.

After a few days, a police official made a phone call and produced a laptop, cellphone and other personal belongings of his daughter which he clearly identified. Shahid had been declared a proclaimed offender while Shahzad is in jail and facing trial.

On January 2, 2013 Sarwar Road police had registered an FIR on the complaint of Sikandar Singh Gill.

The complainant said his daughter reached Lahore airport from Canada on August 25, 2012. He said when she reached Lahore, she had a Canadian passport, cash, a laptop, gold ornaments and other things of personal use with her. She was in contact with Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Rai and Shahzad but so far they could not find her neither she called her family after reaching Pakistan nor sent any messages. Later, Sarwar Road police arrested Shahzad and produced him before the Cantonment judicial magistrate.

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Police claimed that Hafiz Shahzad had confessed his crime of kidnapping and murdering the woman at the behest of Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Rai. Shahid had invited the girl to Pakistan for a diamond auction in Lahore. Shahid and Gill had known each other for a long time and he had told her that he would pay her back the money he owed her when she comes to Lahore.

Shahzad had confessed that he and Shahid received Gill at the airport and drove her to Sheikhupura on motorway. They gave her a cup of tea with sedatives and she fell unconsciousn. They strangled her with a rope and dumped her body in Khanpur Canal off Lahore-Sheikhupura Road.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2017.

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