Charge sheet filed against Armaghan, accomplice in Mustafa Amir murder case

Police on Monday filed a charge-sheet against prime suspect Armaghan and his friend Sheraz in Mustafa Amir murder case.

Twenty-three-year-old Mustafa Amir went missing after he left his home on the evening of January 6. He was later found to have been murdered. His charred body was found in the trunk of his car in Hub, Balochistan.

Armaghan was arrested over his alleged involvement in Mustafa's murder on Feb 8 after an encounter with an Anti-Violent Crime Cell (AVCC) team that came to arrest him at his bungalow in Defence Housing Authorty (DHA) Phase-V.

Two AVCC officials, including DSP Ahsan Zulfiqar, sustained bullet injuries when the suspect allegedly opened fire onthem. Syed Sheeraz, aka Shavez, was arrested on February 14 from Akhtar Colony bus stop.

Investigation Officer (IO) Mohammad Ali submitted an interim investigation report before the administrative judge of anti-terrorism courts (ATCs), charge-sheeting both the suspects, who are in custody, for offences punishable under the sections 365-A (kidnapping or abducting for extorting property, valuable security, etc.), 302 (murder), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred rupees), and 34 (common intention) read with the Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The IO listed more than 40 prosecution witnesses, including two employees of Armaghan. He stated that Armaghan and Sheraz had admitted their involvement in Amir's murder during interrogation. He said Armaghan confessed that Amir had sent him a photo of a peeled banana on WhatsApp a day after the New Year’s Eve party at his bungalow, which was attended by his male and female friends, and mocked him by implying a possible incident between him and a girl, which angered him.

On January 4, he invited the girl to his bungalow under the pretext of taking her to his new office at another location. When she arrived, he assaulted her in his room using a self-defence stick for relaying the incident to Mustafa

“She was injured, and her blood stained the carpet. Then I booked a ride and showed her a sniper bullet, threatening her by saying that if she told anyone, I would put it through her head. I told her to go straight to NMC Hospital for treatment and, if hospital staff asked, to say she didn’t want any police action," the IO quoted Armaghan as saying.

"On January 6, I called Sheraz to my bungalow. At around 9 pm, Mustafa Amir came upstairs to my room. He was wearing black trousers and a hoodie. Shortly after he arrived, I picked up the folding stick that I keep in my room and began beating him while hurling abuses. Blood started flowing from his knees and head.

When Mustafa tried to grab the stick, I fired my rifle around him — I was in a fit of rage. I kept assaulting him at intervals. After that, I tied his hands and feet with a white sheet and dragged him downstairs from the upper room."

Armaghan said he and his friend Sheraz, who had been with him at the bungalow the entire time, bundled Mustafa in the trunk of the victim’s car. He added that he had the bloodstains on the carpet in his room cleaned by his employees.

He said he drove Amir’s car via Hub River Road and the Northern Bypass towards Hub Chowki, and drove further for around three hours. Along the way, he broke Mustafa’s mobile phone and threw it away, along with his trousers and other belongings.

Later that night, at around 4:30 am, he turned the car off the main road onto a deserted area, parked it, poured petrol on it, and set it on fire. After that, they walked back on foot.

The IO stated that CCTV footage of the Rangers post near the Hamdard University crossing on the Northern Bypass was collected, which showed both suspects on January 6 at 11:54 pm in the car in which Amir was being taken from Karachi to Dureji. On January 7, both suspects were seen returning in a Suzuki pickup, he added.

He said Armaghan and Sheraz also confessed to their crime before the AVCC SSP, and a video recording of the confessions was sealed and preserved as evidence. However, he added both the suspects' confessions could not be recorded before a judicial magistrate under the Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

According to the charge-sheet, the girl, in her statement, said that she had been working at Armaghan's call centre for one year and a half. She claimed that he beat her with a stick, leaving marks all over her body, and threatened to kill her if she disclosed anything. She received treatment at a private hospital and falsely claimed that she was tortured by unidentified robbers.