The case of a property dealer who was found dead in Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority a couple of days ago took a new turn on Friday when the video he had recorded before his death surfaced and showed him accusing his partner and others of issuing murder threats to him.
Sohail Shaikh, 42, was found shot dead at his office located in Phase VII, DHA, within the limits of the Defence police station late on Wednesday night. Initially, the police had claimed that Shaikh had apparently ended his life by shooting himself with his licensed pistol as he had been facing depression due to a dispute over the ownership of a property with some influential people as well as with his partners Moiz Khowaja and Amir Waheed for a long time.
However, after the emergence of the video, a murder case was registered against the victim’s partners and three other persons on a complaint from his maternal uncle, Sabir Khan, at the Defence police station.
Family and friends of the victim staged a protest against the incident on Khayaban-e-Ittehad on Friday evening. “We have footages and we have shared them with the police investigators,” said the victim’s maternal uncle, Sabir Khan, while talking to The News. “He was picked up by gunmen of his partner from his Khayaban-e-Badar office and the footages are available.”
“Even if he committed suicide, his partners will also be responsible because they cheated and threatened him and would have caused his suicide,” he said. In his video statement, Shaikh alleged that his partner Moiz had occupied his house, while another person, Amir Waheed, who claimed himself a Grade-20 deputy secretary, had taken millions of rupees from him and both of them had cheated him.
“They also want to kill me,” he said in the video recorded a few hours before his death. “I have a debt and I am mentally worried now and appeal to the higher authorities not to leave these blackmailers if something wrong happens to me.”
Police investigators said a postmortem on the deceased had been completed at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, and according to initial reports, Shaikh died of a bullet wound to the head. The final postmortem report will be received after a week.
They said they were trying to ascertain whether the incident was a suicide or a murder, while the forensic report of the weapon found near the body was awaited, and CCTV footage was being obtained. Police officials said that both the partners nominated in the FIR were abroad, while the raids were being conducted to arrest the three other suspects.