Mother of accused in Sara Inam murder case remanded for two days

IO tells court case challan to be submitted today after judge expresses displeasure of delay in submission

ISLAMABAD:

A two-day physical remand of Samina Shah, mother of Shahnawaz Amir, the main accused in the Sara Inam murder case, was approved on Thursday.

Samina was presented by the police in the court of Senior Civil Judge Muhammad Amir Uzair, a day after she was arrested following the expiration of her interim pre-arrest bail. The investigating officer (IO) informed the court about the arrest.

The judge asked the IO if he had submitted the case challan. The judge expressed displeasure on being informed that it was yet to be submitted. "14 days have passed and it [challan] has still not been submitted," the judge remarked.

To this, the investigating officer replied that the challan had been prepared and will be submitted today.

The IO then requested the court to grant a five-day physical remand of the accused's mother, arguing that a locket had to be recovered from her.

Samina's lawyer, Arsal Amjad Hashmi, told the court that she has been "cooperating with the police since the first day", adding that it was Samina who herself got her son arrested.

"Section 109 has been imposed on us," he said, questioning the police's decision to impose this section. He requested for the prime suspect's mother to be sent on judicial remand instead.

However, after hearing the arguments, the court approved a two-day physical remand of Samina.

Bail extension denied

A day earlier, the Islamabad police had arrested Samina Shah after a local court rejected her application for bail extension.

Read Main suspect in Sara murder case sent on judicial remand

In her bail petition, Samina had pleaded that she had “nothing to do with the incident”, neither was she an eye-witness to the crime.

The court observed that the time when the applicant informed her husband and the police about the murder was not available on record. At this, the complainant’s counsel, Rao Abdul Rahim, adopted the stance that the doctor mentioned the inordinate delay between the time of death and postmortem.

“The post-mortem took place at 1 o'clock while the doctor mentioned that she [Sara Inam] had died 12 to 24 hours before. This means that the death either occurred at 1 o'clock in the night or at 1 o'clock in the afternoon a day before the post-mortem,” Rahim argued.

The complainant’s counsel went on to question the statement of the accused, admitting that the victim had arrived at her residence a day prior to the murder. “Why did the CCTV camera stop working two days ago? Whether Samina’s role is limited to the extent of aiding [the murder], or she is also involved in the murder will come to light in the investigation,” he contended.

The court questioned, “Why was the accused in contact with the victim? Why did she come suddenly? Did Samina not know? WhatsApp records prove that Shahnawaz has divorced Sara.”

On September 23, 2022, Shahnawaz Amir, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, allegedly killed his 37-year-old Canadian-born Pakistani wife Sara Inam in a farmhouse in Islamabad's Chak Shehzad suburb, where the suspect lived with his mother.