Three bullets pierced through advocate’s head, confirms board

The hospital report said he was shot once on the right side of his head.

KARACHI: In the light of the court directives and with the consent of his family, the body of Advocate Naimat Ali Randhawa was exhumed at the Paposhnagar graveyard on Monday for a post-mortem.   

A four-member team of the medical board rejected the hospital’s findings and confirmed the police report that three bullet pierced through the left side of the victim’s head. The team, headed by Dr Jalil Qadir Memon, under the supervision of the North Nazimabad and Gulberg special judicial magistrate exhumed the body of the lawyer to verify the investigating officer, Inspector Naeem’s, report and the first medical report prepared by doctors at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital.

The team had to probe two objections raised by the police — the direction of fire shots and the number of gun wounds. The IO mentioned that the victim suffered bullet wounds to the left side of his head while the doctors’ report claimed that a single bullet hit his head on the right side.



“The police report is correct as he was shot thrice on the left side,” confirmed Dr Memon. He said that the team verified both the objections raised by the police in the court. “It took almost an hour to confirm and verify the objections.” The team was not asked to confirm the cause of death, said Dr Memon, adding that the examination was carried out under the supervision of the magistrate and the report was submitted to him accordingly. The magistrate told The Express Tribune that the report was prepared on the spot and it would also be submitted in court. He was of the view that there was no need for any further post-mortem.

Dr Farhat Hussain Mirza, Dr Qarar Hussain Abbasi and Dr Muhammad Saleem were other members of the medical team. The IO said that the body was exhumed on the orders of the Central district and sessions judge.

Naeem said that the body, which had to be exhumed earlier this month, underwent an autopsy on Monday after the Naimat’s son, Naseer Randhawa, had moved an application in the court challenging the directive. “The post-mortem was conducted with the consent of the family. They were not ready before.” In his application, Naseer had stated that the authorities had not consulted him and his family, adding that the exhumation would amount to disgracing the remains of his father. Therefore, he had asked the court not to exhume the body.

MQM activist caught

An activist of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Syed Kazim Abbas Rizvi, was booked for the murder of Randhawa. According to the prosecution, the advocate along with his son was returning home when they were attacked in North Nazimabad on September 26. The city police chief had linked the killing with the murder of journalist Wali Babar, citing that the slain lawyer had been pursuing the case on behalf of the complainant.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 22^nd, 2013.