A district and sessions court on Monday remanded two suspects in police custody for allegedly providing a weapon to Dr Maha Ali Shah who committed suicide by shooting herself in Defence Housing Authority.
Police had arrested and booked the suspects, Tabish Qureshi and Saad Siddiqui, for allegedly providing the firearm to Dr Maha and an attempted murder within the remits of the Gizri police station.
On Monday, the investigation officer (IO) produced both the suspects before a judicial magistrate (South) to seek their physical remand in police custody for investigation.
The IO informed the court that Siddiqui possessed a 9mm caliber pistol licensed in his name, which he allegedly allowed the 24-year-old doctor to use in the offence. He added that the second suspect, Qureshi, allegedly gave the weapon from Siddiqui to Dr Maha who committed suicide by using the same in an unauthorised manner.
The IO said that both the suspects were required to be further interrogated to complete the investigation and fulfil other legal formalities. He pleaded to the judge to grant a 14-day physical remand of the suspects.
The judge, however, granted a two-day physical remand of the suspects in police custody with direction to the IO to produce them on the next date along with an investigation report. The FIR against Qureshi and Siddiqui was registered under the sections 324 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with the relevant section of the Sindh Arms Act, 2013.
New revelations
Meanwhile, police revealed on Monday that on the day of suicide, Dr Maha had spent around four hours at the house of one of her close friends before she reached home from hospital, adds Faraz Khan.
Though the police investigators have termed her death an act of suicide, they are still investigating the case and have recorded the statement of another close friend of the deceased doctor.
“Dr Maha left the hospital at around 4pm and spent around four hours at her close friend’s residence before returning to her residence in DHA,” revealed Dr Maha’s friend. Police have also recorded the statement of the close friend who told them that another friend of Dr Maha, Junaid, used to send a vehicle to pick Dr Maha from the hospital but she refused to avail it on the day of suicide and rather hired a cab to reach the house of her another friend. Police said they would also question the other friends of the deceased.
Earlier, police had declared that the young doctor committed suicide due to depression and various other factors. “We have completed our investigations as we have reached the conclusion that Dr Maha was not murdered by someone but it was purely a suicide case,” said South Zone Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Javed Akbar Riaz. “We have arrested both the men who arranged a pistol for Dr Maha and we have booked them under the Arms Act,” the DIG said.
“Dr Maha was suffering from some sort of depression and had talked about committing suicide previously with her sister. This is a very unfortunate incident where a young promising doctor has committed suicide due to depression and various other factors which were not probably known to the family and we need to closely monitor the activities of young children and provide them appropriate relief and family support so that they can enjoy their lives happily,” DIG Riaz said.
Police investigators said the doctor seemed disturbed on the day when she returned from her duty. Her father entered the room and saw her sitting with her sister. She then went to the bathroom and opened the shower and shortly after that, she shot her herself in the head.