Polio campaign: SHC orders ‘fair’ probe into murder of lady health worker
Woman was shot dead in her house but father claims her husband, sons behind it.
KARACHI:
The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the Crime Investigation Department DIG Sultan Khawaja on Friday to conduct a ‘fair’ probe into the murder of the polio immunisation campaign supervisor, whose cause of death is still a mystery.
A single bench, headed by Justice Hasan Feroze, also directed Khawaja to submit the investigations report in the court within three weeks.
Naseem Akhtar was shot dead at her Landhi house on the night of May 21, according to Sachal police, who are conducting the investigations into the incident. The victim’s father, Sheikh Muneer, approached the high court to seek a fair and transparent probe to track down her killers. In his plea, Sheikh claimed that he suspected that his daughter was murdered by her husband and her sons over a property dispute.
His lawyer, Gada Hussain Abro, told the court that the Sachal police had lodged an FIR of Naseem’s murder on the complaint of her son, who himself is allegedly involved in the brutal act. The petitioner approached the police station to nominate the victim’s husband and sons in a murder FIR but the officials refused to entertain his plea, said Abro.
“The petitioner has no hopes of justice from neither the police officials investigating the murder nor their superiors,” the lawyer said. On the directions of the judicial magistrate, the police later registered a separate FIR on the complaint of the victim’s father but its contents are entirely different from his statements. “It shows the officials are hand-in-glove with the suspects,” Abro argued.
He pleaded the court transfer the investigations to some honest officer. The petitioner also sought a direction to the Sindh Police IG to order departmental action against Sachal SHO Akram Mughal, investigations officer Sub-inspector Sahib Khan and Sikandar Ali for carrying out distorted probe.
Justice Hasan Feroze directed CID’s Sultan Khawaja to ensure the incident is investigated in a fair and transparent manner. He was further directed to assign the investigations to an honest officer not below the rank of a DSP and submit a report within three weeks.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2014.
The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered the Crime Investigation Department DIG Sultan Khawaja on Friday to conduct a ‘fair’ probe into the murder of the polio immunisation campaign supervisor, whose cause of death is still a mystery.
A single bench, headed by Justice Hasan Feroze, also directed Khawaja to submit the investigations report in the court within three weeks.
Naseem Akhtar was shot dead at her Landhi house on the night of May 21, according to Sachal police, who are conducting the investigations into the incident. The victim’s father, Sheikh Muneer, approached the high court to seek a fair and transparent probe to track down her killers. In his plea, Sheikh claimed that he suspected that his daughter was murdered by her husband and her sons over a property dispute.
His lawyer, Gada Hussain Abro, told the court that the Sachal police had lodged an FIR of Naseem’s murder on the complaint of her son, who himself is allegedly involved in the brutal act. The petitioner approached the police station to nominate the victim’s husband and sons in a murder FIR but the officials refused to entertain his plea, said Abro.
“The petitioner has no hopes of justice from neither the police officials investigating the murder nor their superiors,” the lawyer said. On the directions of the judicial magistrate, the police later registered a separate FIR on the complaint of the victim’s father but its contents are entirely different from his statements. “It shows the officials are hand-in-glove with the suspects,” Abro argued.
He pleaded the court transfer the investigations to some honest officer. The petitioner also sought a direction to the Sindh Police IG to order departmental action against Sachal SHO Akram Mughal, investigations officer Sub-inspector Sahib Khan and Sikandar Ali for carrying out distorted probe.
Justice Hasan Feroze directed CID’s Sultan Khawaja to ensure the incident is investigated in a fair and transparent manner. He was further directed to assign the investigations to an honest officer not below the rank of a DSP and submit a report within three weeks.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 29th, 2014.