A model court on Friday absolved four accused from the murder of a 20-year-old girl, Aleena, as her parents pardoned them and requested the court not to prosecute them. One of the accused, Alveena, was the sister of the murdered girl.
Alveena, her fiance Mazhar, and two friends of the victim, Ahsan and Abbas, had been charged with the murder and blackmailing. They were all arrested by police.
The additional sessions judge of District East’s model criminal court passed the verdict after examining the affidavit submitted by Aleena’s parents that said they were pardoning the accused.
The incident had occurred on December 6, 2017. Initially, it was reported that Aleena was stabbed to death while her sister Alveena was injured as they tried to resist a robbery bid at their house in Malir.
Later, then Korangi SSP Nauman Siddiqui revealed that Alveena had confessed to slitting the throat of her sister after allegedly being blackmailed by her and her friends for several days.
The officer said the victim and her friend Ahsan had been blackmailing Alveena with her objectionable photographs. He added that Alveena and Mazhar also wanted to kill Ahsan but did not carry out the plan.
He said the couple first tried to pressurise Aleena into telling Ahsan to delete the pictures. However, when she refused, Mazhar held her down and Alveena slit her throat with a knife, the official stated, adding that after the murder, the two attempted to destroy evidence, including mobile phones.
Police seized six mobile phones, cash amounting to Rs76,000 and the knife used in the murder from the suspects. Ahsan and his brother Abbas were booked for blackmailing Alveena. The FIR of the incident was registered at the Saudabad police station on the complaint of the girls’ father.
On April 17, 2018, an additional district and sessions court granted bail to Alveena and the other three suspects for a sum of Rs100,000 each. The court also directed the four to appear for the trial on the next hearing.