Body found on top of elevator identified

The body was found on Sunday, family accuses police of not telling them about it until Monday night

KARACHI: A body found on the top of an elevator in the 13-storey residential building Saima Bridge View Apartments near Board Office, North Nazimabad on Sunday, was identified late on Monday.

Reportedly, the body had initially not been identified and the police had shifted it to Chhipa morgue. However it is now reported that the family of the deceased identified the body as 23 year-old Haji Bhai, son of Muhammad Ali, who is a resident of North Nazimabad.

North Nazimabad SHO Muzaffar Ali had stated earlier that the deceased had allegedly tried to enter the elevator through the maintenance area on the top floor and fell from a height of five storeys, instead of stepping on the elevator as it was called down to the 8th floor.

Meanwhile, the family of the deceased has alleged that the police have acted unprofessionally as they failed to inform them about the unidentified body despite being informed by the family about Haji's disappearance on Monday.

According to the family, Haji had left the house on Saturday following a domestic dispute and never returned. Following the incident the family allegedly conducted a search for two days, and on Monday registered a complaint regarding his disappearance at the North Nazimabad Police Station, while providing a photograph for identification.

Claiming that they remained in touch with the relevant SHO the entire time, the family has accused the police of not informing them about the body found until Monday night, maintaining that they came to know about an unidentified body found from Bridge View Apartments being kept in Chhipa morgue, late on Monday night. Upon arriving at the morgue they identified Haji Bhai.

When they questioned the SHO about the situation, he allegedly admitted that a body was found on Monday morning but was unidentifiable, meanwhile according to the family, Haji's face was recognisable.

The family suspects that there is something that police are allegedly hiding in regards to the incident as the post-mortem has yet to be performed, while the body allegedly has torture marks. The family has stated that they will try to get the post-mortem done to ascertain the cause of death to ensure that action could be taken against police for its negligence.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2020.