Sarah Inam murder: Accused Shahnawaz acquitted in illegal weapon possession case

ISLAMABAD: Shahnawaz Amir, the prime suspect in the Sarah Inam murder case, has been acquitted by a court in the case pertaining to the possession of an illegal weapon, a Kalashnikov, on the basis of the benefit of the doubt.

The court's decision stated that the prosecution miserably failed to prove the charge against Shahnawaz, who was Sarah's husband and son of journalist Ayaz Amir.

It also rejected the evidence provided by the prosecution, stating that it was doubtful.

Judicial Magistrate Umar Shabbir said that the benefit of the doubt is the right of the accused. 

"Complainant Constable Tariq was not produced as a witness," the court noted. 

It should be noted that the police had registered a separate case related to the recovery of a Kalashnikov from the suspect. 

Currently, the final arguments in the murder case against Shahnawaz are continuing at the session court.

Last month, the prime suspect rejected all evidence submitted by the prosecution against him, terming it "baseless".

Amir was presented before Additional District and Sessions Judge Nasir Javed Rana, where he told the court that on the night of the incident, his mother prepared dinner for them.

"We all ate together, chatted a lot and then went to sleep. Sarah went to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I was asleep at that time. I woke up at 7am and went to F-8 Market to get breakfast," he said.

He added: "When I came back at 9am, Sarah was not in the room and upon searching, he found her lying in a bathtub. When I saw Sarah, she was already dead."

Sarah, a 37-year-old economist, was murdered with dumbbells by her husband Shahnawaz in Islamabad’s Chak Shahzad area on Friday, September 23, 2022.

The suspect earlier confessed to committing the crime and said that he "thought" his spouse was having an affair with someone else and killed his wife in an act of self-defence.