Two more arrested for ‘helping’ Shahrukh escape to Dubai

The suspects filed bail applications that were denied on Monday.

KARACHI: Two more men who may have helped Shahrukh Jatoi escape to Dubai have been apprehended by the investigators.

The suspect Sohail Ahmed, who works at Fazle Rabbi travel agency, was arrested from his office in Cantt Station while the other suspect, Taha, who is a services agent of Emirates Airline, was taken into custody from Jinnah airport.

On Monday, judicial magistrate, Malir, Hasan Ali Kalwar turned down the bail applications by the two suspects because the offence was of “serious nature”. Both the suspects have now submitted bail-after-arrest applications.

These arrests came after the two names were added to the FIR No. 26/2013, which was registered at the anti-human trafficking cell of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on February 3 against Shahrukh Jatoi for travelling illegally out of the country.

“If we come across more accomplices during our investigations, their names will also be added to the FIR,” said FIA inquiry officer Faqir Muhammad.

Shahrukh is in jail because he has been accused of killing 20-year-old Shahzeb Khan over a small argument in DHA on December 25 last year.

Another FIA official, told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity that they were also trying to figure out whether or not Shahrukh’s elder brother, Nawab Ali Jatoi and his friend, Muhammad Khurram, who lives in the UAE, were involved in Shahrukh’s escape. Nawab Ali and Khurram were both accompanying Shahrukh on the same flight to UAE.

Shahrukh entered Dubai on December 27, 2012, as per the Dubai Immigration entry stamp on his passport, however, no stamp of immigration from the Karachi airport, has been found. FIA immigration cell’s inspector Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal and constable Bilal have also been suspended for negligence.



Inquiry officer Faqir Muhammad confirmed that Shahrukh went through the immigration counter to get on the plane and did not use any other way.

Airline’s employee gets pre-arrest bail

Meanwhile, district and sessions judge, Malir, Muhammad Yamin, granted interim bail on a surety of Rs100,000 to the shift in-charge of Gerry Dnata, a company that provides ground handling services on behalf of Emirates Airlines at airports. Syed Salman Shah has also been directed to meet FIA’s Saeed Ahmed Memon and join the investigations. The bail will be confirmed on February 13.

In his plea, Shah said that seat confirmations of passengers are the duty of Emirates Airlines and that their staff members only handle passengers according to the bookings on the computer. On December 27 last year, Shahrukh appeared on their counter and a check-in worker swapped his passport in the system, which automatically issued a boarding card.

Earlier, the investigating officer was granted two days to submit the charge sheet. The mandatory period of 14 days expired on Feb 11, but he still needed two more days to complete investigation and get more evidence, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 13^th, 2013.