Court seeks charge sheet in Sea View murder case

A local court on Monday sent Junaid Shah, a co-accused in the murder of a teenager on Sea View, to prison on judicial remand.

Despite having earlier rejected the IO’s plea to put the key co-accused Shah through an identification parade, the judicial magistrate for District South has ordered the investigation officer (IO) to submit a charge sheet in the murder case of Zafir Zuberi at the next hearing.

After his request was shot down, the IO had approached the appellate court, the District and Sessions Court (South), which issued a notice to the state attorney to hear arguments on the IO’s plea.

Citing the court’s order to move Shah to prison on judicial remand, the IO submitted that his identification parade could be held on the appellate court’s orders. However, Shah’s attorney argued that the identification parade could also be held in prison.

The court then directed the IO to move Shah to prison and present a charge sheet at the next hearing, a date for which was yet to be announced. However, it remains likely that Shah would be produced for the identification parade on January 5.

Earlier granted interim bail, Shah ran away from the court on December 23 after his bail extension plea was rejected. He was, however, arrested soon after. Shah had also tried to obtain bail from an appellate court but that too was rejected.

A day earlier, on December 22, the IO had drawn the court’s attention towards Shah’s role in the murder. He said that after getting an interim bail, the co-accused had been in hiding and requested for the interim bail order to be cancelled because Shah could influence witnesses who could identify him in the ID parade.