IO ordered to submit charge sheet against suspected killer

The Judicial Magistrate (East) ordered on Saturday the investigation officer (IO) of the Zeba Burney murder case to present the charge sheet against the suspected killer of the slain journalist.  

The court had earlier directed the IO to keep the accused, Kashif Jameel alias Mota, at the central prison on judicial remand. Sixty-five-year-old Zeba Burney was found dead inside her Khudadad Colony apartment on the first day of Eidul Fitr.

According to the police, Kashif Jameel alias Mota has admitted to killing the senior journalists.

The suspected had visited Burney’s house to repair an air conditioner, which had developed a fault after a fire broke out in her apartment’s electricity meter a few days before Eidul Fitr.

He then intended to rob the house but was identified by the deceased due to which Jameel killed the old lady.

He told the police that he had stolen a mobile phone, cash and jewellery and as the lady caught him red-handed and started shouting for help, he strangled her to death. Before escaping from the apartment, the robber moved the body into the bedroom to cover up the murder as natural death.

Kashif was arrested with the help of CCTV footage obtained from a camera installed at the entrance of Burney’s apartment.  The Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) had protested over the senior journalist’s murder and demanded of the authorities to arrest the killer. 

Sindh Home Minister Suhail Anwar Siyal and Inspector General of Police (IGP) A D Khowaja had assured the journalist fraternity of action to solve the murder case at the earliest and later the suspected murderer was arrested. The slain journalist served Urdu daily Nawa-i-Waqt for 30 years and also remained the incharge of its children’s and women pages. She left the newspaper in 2013.