Hamza murder case: SHC issues notice on family’s plea for re-investigation by ‘honest officers’

Lawyer says no evidence presented proving Shoaib’s involvement in the murder .

KARACHI:

The murder case of Hamza Ahmed took a new turn on Thursday after his family sought re-investigation by a team of ‘honest’ police officers’, accusing the current investigation officer of concealing crucial evidence from the court to save the culprits.

Hamza, a 17-year-old student of O levels, was allegedly gunned down by the security guard of another teenager, Shoaib, after an altercation between the two outside a restaurant in the upscale Defence Housing Authority on April 27.

The deceased’s father, Talib Suhail, had registered a murder case under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code, naming Shoaib Naveed, his father Naveed Ahmed, their guard Amal Rehman and others as accused.



On Thursday, the father moved to the high court seeking direction for police chief to order re-investigation of his son’s murder case by a team of ‘honest’ police officers.

He claimed that the police official investigating the case had concealed crucial circumstantial evidence from the Anti-Terrorism Court conducting the trial which was enough to establish the involvement of Shoaib Naveed in the murder.

Missing evidence

His lawyer, Wazir Khoso, said that the IO had obtained two compact disks containing video footage of the incident captured by the close-circuit cameras in DHA, but he did not produce the same as evidence in court.



Secondly, the complainant had requested the IO to call independent eyewitnesses, including guard Akhtar of the nearby beauty saloon, Sadaqat who was an employee of the Latte Lounge and Qari Aslam. Their cell numbers were also provided to SP Sarfaraz Nawab, but the investigation team extended threats to the independent eyewitnesses, who have disappeared, maintained the lawyer.

The lawyer further pointed out that the IO, under the influence of accused party, did not go through the messages from the mobile phones of the accused Shoaib, deceased Hamza and others, including Daniyal Gabachi, Hassan Magsi and Gazan Dharejo. This was done, he said, to conceal the real facts and to give benefit to the accused party, otherwise all the mobiles phones are/were with the investigation officer.

The court was told that complainant made a request to Citizens-Police Liaison Committee to seek the SMS record of the mobile numbers but till date, the IO was avoiding producing the data of the SMS to the complainant on one pretext or the other.

Accusations of a cover-up

“From the photograph taken during the course of postmortem, it is very much clear that in addition to the bullet marks on the chest, there is clear and visible mark of sharp edge weapon on the left side of the face of the deceased,” Wazir Khoso argued. “Such evidence of physical violence prior to the firing has not been explained by any of the witness enlisted with the charge sheet or such fact has also not been mentioned in the post mortem report which needs re- investigation of the FIR.”

He complained to the judges that the investigation officer was deliberately concealing the evidence in connivance with the suspects to save them.

“Shoaib Naveed and Naveed Ahmed, his father, are helping the killer, guard Aman Rehman, escape to save their own skin,” the lawyer claimed, adding that no action has been taken on the request made to the DIG Headquarters Sanaullah Abbasi for a fresh investigation.

The lawyer pleaded the court to order that the IG constitute an inquiry committee, comprising honest officers, to investigate the murder case.

Justice Ghulam Sarwar Korai, who headed the bench, issued notice to the home secretary, IG, Darakhshan SHO and investigation officer concerned to file their comments by August 16.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 2^nd, 2013.