Accused in doctor’s suicide case escape from court

Their pleas were rejected by the court; police submit charge-sheet

The two accused in the female doctor's suicide case escaped from the court premises on Monday, after the South judicial magistrate rejected their pleas.

Accused Junaid and Waqas appeared before the local court to hear the verdict on their bail pleas, which was reserved on Sunday.

After the court rejected their bail pleas, Junaid and Waqas fled from the court premises. The police, though, managed to catch Junaid as he sat in a rickshaw outside the court but he managed to escape again.

Some reports allege that Junaid bribed the investigation officer to allow him to flee also surfaced.

At another hearing, the police submitted the charge-sheet of the suicide case before the court. According to the challan, the pistol used by M* to commit suicide was bought on July 9 by suspect Saad Nasir, who sold his 9mm licensed pistol to suspect Tabish Yaseen for Rs55,000 on July 12. Around a month ago, Tabish gave it to M.

According to police, Tabish confirmed that he bought the pistol from Saad. According to the charge-sheet, the police have not yet verified Saad's arms license while Tabish was found to be violating Section 24 of the Sindh Arms Act 2013 [Section 24 pertains to possession of arms with intent to use for unlawful purposes].

Earlier the court had permitted the police to conduct a second postmortem after exhuming M's body, and directed the formation of a medical board, at the deceased's father's request.

M died on August 19 with a gunshot wound to her head allegedly by suicide. Investigation was initiated on the complaint of her father, who claimed that the accused on multiple occasions drugged, raped and harassed her, prompting her to take her own life.

With additional input from PPI

*INITIAL USED TO PROTECT IDENTITY

Published in The Express Tribune, September 22^nd, 2020.