An Islamabad district and sessions court on Monday extended the physical remands of the main suspect in the Sarah Inam murder case, Shahnawaz Amir, and his father Ayaz Amir.
\nShahnawaz was arrested last week for allegedly killing his Canadian national wife. The incident took place at a farmhouse located in Shahzad Town where the suspect lived along with his mother.
\nHis father and senior journalist Ayaz Amir, was also arrested for his alleged involvement. Both Shahnawaz and Ayaz were presented in the court of Civil Judge Muhammad Amir Aziz after their remands expired.
\nDuring the hearing today, the police requested an extension in the remands of the suspects for seven days.
\n\u201cWe are yet to seize their passports and bank accounts,\u201d the investigating officer (IO) said.
\nThe judge inquired about Ayaz\u2019s role in the case.
\n\u201cHe has been nominated by the victim\u2019s uncle and aunt,\u201d the IO replied, elaborating that the journalist hailed from Chakwal and was the main suspect\u2019s father.
\nJudge Aziz also asked about the whereabouts of the victim\u2019s parents to which the IO said that they were in Canada and would reach Pakistan by tomorrow (Tuesday).
\nDuring the hearing, Ayaz said that he would \u201cfight the case\u201d himself. \u201cWe are traumatised. I informed the police about the incident myself.
\n\u201cI was in Chakwal when the crime took place and informed the inspector general (IG) myself,\u201d the journalist said, adding that in the absence of the IG, the senior superintendent was informed.
\nI informed the police about the location of the farmhouse, he said. \u201cBut the police only gave their stance in the FIR. They never mentioned me in the complaint.
\n\u201cThe police are saying Sarah\u2019s uncle recorded a statement. If you have accused me, present the evidence,\u201d he contended, claiming that in such incidents, the crime scene was \u201coften tampered\u201d with.
\nAyaz also said that he had told Shahnawaz\u2019s mother, Sameena Shah, not to let him leave the house. \u201cIn the one-day remand, the police didn\u2019t ask me anything. They have just taken away my mobile phone,\u201d he added.
\nFor his part, the prosecutor argued that Ayaz was named in the complaint by the victim\u2019s family. \u201cHer parents will reach Islamabad tomorrow. They have all the proof,\u201d he said.
\nSubsequently, the court extended Shahnawaz\u2019s remand for three days, while Ayaz\u2019s remanded was extended for a day.
\nSeparately, Shahnawaz\u2019s mother, Sameena Shah, was granted three-day bail by an Islamabad sessions court against surety bonds of Rs50,000.
\nEarlier in the day, Shah had filed a petition seeking pre-arrest bail in the case after police issued an arrest warrant for Sameena.
\nIn the petition, Sameena presented her version of the incident, stating that Shahnawaz had sent her a message on WhatsApp \u201cbefore the heinous crime, to arrange the rukhsati of the deceased by speaking to the deceased\u2019s father\u201d.
\n\u201cEverything was normal the night before the crime took place,\u201d she said in the petition.
\nSameena said she slept after receiving the message and was informed about the incident by Shahnawaz, who had called her on her mobile phone at 9:12am the next day.
\nThereafter, Sameena rushed to Shahnawaz\u2019s room, the petition said, adding that by the time she reached the room, Sarah had already died.
\n\u201cThe petitioner asked Shahnawaz to sit in her room and Ayaz \u2026 had called the police and within few minutes, the police had arrived and took custody of Shahnawaz,\u201d the plea read.
\nSameena termed the FIR \u201cfalse and frivolous\u201d and stated that she had no connection with the case or the murder. \u201cBut her name is being mentioned by the media that an application has been moved for her arrest,\u201d the petition said.
\nReiterating that Sameena had no connection with the murder \u201cand was not even an eyewitness to the incident\u201d, the plea stated that \u201cher reputable name is being added for no reason but to jeopardise her years [of] reputation which clearly establishes the mala fide intent and ulterior motives\u201d.
\nMoreover, the plea mentioned that Sameena was an elderly woman with health issues and said she was willing to furnish sureties against bail, as well as \u201ccomply with an investigation that may be conducted by law enforcement agencies\u201d.
\nHearing the petition, Judge Sheikh Sohail accepted Sameena\u2019s plea and instructed her to join the investigation in the case.
\nThe FIR
\nPolice have become a complainant in the case, with the FIR registered on the complaint of Shahzad Town Station House Officer Nawazish Ali Khan.
\nThe complaint stated that on September 23, Sameena called police and informed them that Shahnawaz had murdered his wife \u201cwith a dumbbell\u201d.
\n\u201cMy son is present in the house and has hidden the body,\u201d the FIR quoted Sameena as saying, adding that the police subsequently raided the house.
\n\u201cHe had locked himself up in his room. When they broke inside, there were stains of blood stains on Shahnawaz\u2019s hands and clothes,\u201d the police said in the complaint.
\n\u201cHe then confessed that he had repeatedly hit his wife with a dumbbell during an argument and then hid her body in the washroom\u2019s bathtub.\u201d
\nAccording to the FIR, Shahnawaz also said he had \u201chidden\u201d the murder weapon under his bed.
\nUpon examining the dumbbell, the police found blood and hair on it. \u201cWe have sent it for forensics,\u201d the FIR added.
\nThe complaint further stated that the victim\u2019s body had been sent to the Polyclinic Hospital for a postmortem examination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An Islamabad district and sessions court on Monday extended the physical remands of the main suspect in the Sarah Inam murder case, Shahnawaz Amir, and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1022,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news-updates"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}