Doctor’s father demands medical board
The father of a female doctor, who recently died by suicide, submitted on Wednesday a plea seeking the formation of a medical board for the investigation of his daughter's death in the South additional district and sessions court.
The petitioner maintained in the plea that the police had declared M's* death a suicide and collected evidence following their suspicion. He claimed, however, that the doctor had prepared an incorrect post-mortem report, adding that she had been given drugs before her death.
The plea moved the court to allow the exhumation of M's body for another post-mortem and medical examination.
On the other hand, the lawyers representing Junaid Khan, who M's father has accused of drugging and raping her, also expressed reservations regarding the investigation.
Advocate Khawaja Naveed said that Khan had offered full cooperation to the police for the case investigation, adding that Khan had appeared before the Gizri SHO the day after M's death of his own volition and was later summoned by Clifton ASP Zahida Parveen to provide relevant information.
"Khan shared all his conversations on text messages with the deceased and the pictures they exchanged with ASP Parveen," said Naveed, adding that Khan later appeared before the South DIG's office on August 21 and informed him about the possible reasons behind M's alleged suicide.
He further maintained that Khan also appeared before Investigation SSP Bashir Brohi upon being summoned before the registration of the FIR, where three officials interrogated him for three hours.
He added that Khan had been consistently cooperating with the police even after being nominated in the case.
According to Naveed, his client recorded his statement with the investigation team and also surrendered his mobile phone to the investigation officer (IO), Sharafat Ali, after notifying the South DIG, but the IO still misstated that he was not joining the investigation. He added that seeking pre-arrest bail was every accused's right.
Meanwhile, Khan's other counsel said that the South DIG was informed through a letter about the IO's false statement in court, adding that the media was also claiming Khan had not surrendered his mobile phone.
*Initial used to protect identity
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2020.