Shan Khusro gets 3-day bail extension

Bureaucrat’s son accused of killing school friend.

LAHORE:

The son of a senior bureaucrat suspected of murdering his friend got a three-day extension in his interim bail from a sessions court on Monday.

Shan Khusro, son of Additional Federal Secretary Khurso Pervez, is accused of shooting Hamza Elahi, son of Shah Alam Market trader Sheikh Fazal Elahi around 10 days ago. Hamza was found dead on June 3 and his father lodged an FIR for murder in which he nominated Shan.

Shan evaded arrest for several days, but gave a statement to the police on June 8 stating that he had shot and killed Hamza accidentally. He told the police that he and Hamza had gone out on the night of June 2 to Defence for a drive and for some aerial firing. He said that he had got the unlicensed gun from a personal contact in Farooqabad.

Shan told the police that while he was trying to remove a bullet from the chamber of the gun, which he was holding in his lap, it accidentally went off and a bullet hit Hamza near the right ear. Hamza was driving the car and was on the phone at the time.

Shan said that Hamza was killed instantly and, in a panic, he pushed him out the car and slid into the passenger seat. Hamza’s body was found the next day in Defence Phase VI. Shan said he then ditched the car near his friend Suleman’s house in Air Avenue, near Defence Phase VIII, where the car was found the next day. He then asked Suleman to drop him back to his home in GOR-I, telling him that his car had been destroyed in an accident. He told the police he also dumped the gun, but was unable to say exactly where.

Shan first obtained interim bail from June 4 to June 11, and then gained a three-day extension yesterday.

Sources in the police said that investigators had doubts about Shan’s version of events. They said that Hamza was shot from very close range, with the bullet travelling in a straight line parallel to the ground, indicating that the gun had been placed next to his ear, not in Shan’s lap. They said that the bullet had also hit Hamza’s finger and mobile phone, which he had been holding to his ear at the time. They said that a security guard had placed a call to Rescue 15 on the night of the incident stating that he had seen a body being dumped from a car with some people inside it. Shan, on the other hand, had claimed that only he and Hamza were in the vehicle at the time.

SP (Investigation) Anwar Khetran said that the police would get a clearer picture of events once they were able to question Shan. He said that the police were yet to question Suleman, who Shan had claimed drove him home.

Sheikh Fazal Elahi, Hamza’s father, said that Hamza was a bright A Level student and had won a scholarship to study at a university in Hong Kong. He said Shan’s father had asked Hamza to help Shan with his studies. He said that Shan was jealous of Hamza because he was more intelligent and richer. He said that Khusro Pervez had approached him from several sources to try and strike a deal whereby he would pardon Shan, but he said that he would not do so.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 12^th, 2012.