IO given till Oct 4 to submit final report on maid’s murder

The additional district and sessions judge (South) on Wednesday ordered the case investigation officer to submit by October 4 a final report with charges against a couple accused of torturing and murdering a teenage housemaid in the city’s Defence Housing Authority area earlier this month.

The couple, Hassan Mazhar and his wife, Nighat Bibi, was arrested on September 16 when the body of a 16-year-old housemaid, Fatima, was found at their house on Khayaban-e-Badban, Phase V, DHA.

They had obtained protective bail before being granted interim bail on September 25 for Rs300,000 each. The bail period was also extended till October 4. At yesterday’s hearing, the case investigation officer failed to submit a report and asked the court for more time to complete the probe. 

The court granted him time till October 4 to submit a final report in the murder case. The accused couple had been on course to avoid arrest as Fatima’s death was initially ruled a suicide by JPMC MLO Dr Noorun Nisa.

However, after a protest by Fatima’s family, a separate medical board was formed at the Dr Ruth Pfau Civil Hospital Karachi.  On September 19, the CHK board declared that Fatima had been strangled to death after being tortured.