Judge expresses anger at IO’s failure to submit DNA report

A judge expressed his displeasure over the failure of the investigation officer (IO) to present the DNA report on Wednesday in the murder case of a 17-year-old housemaid.

Hassan Mazhar and his wife, Nighat Bibi, who are facing charges of murdering their housemaid, Fatima, appeared before the judicial magistrate (South), but the IO expressed his inability to present the DNA report and a report on the chemical examination of the victim’s scarf. He said he had not yet received the two reports.

Fatima, whose body was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her employer’s residence on Khayaban-e-Badban, Phase V, DHA, was strangled to death after being tortured on September 16.

The body of Fatima, daughter of Abdul Haq, was taken to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre by Gizri police. A medico-legal officer at the hospital, Dr Noorun Nisa, had initially ruled the death a suicide. However, following a protest by the maid’s family outside the Gizri police station, a medical board was formed at the Civil Hospital Karachi to probe the cause of her death. 

Later, CHK Additional Police Surgeon Dr Qarar Ahmed Abbasi said the four-member medical board, including Jinnah Sindh Medical University professor Farhat Mirza, CHK senior MLO Dr Sumayya Syed and police surgeon Ijaz Khokhar, performed an autopsy and found that the girl had been murdered.

He added that the result of the autopsy suggested that the teenager was subjected to torture before being strangulated to death. DNA samples to ascertain whether the victim had been sexually assaulted had also been collected.

Sharing the medical board’s findings, Dr Abbasi said the victim’s neck bore ligature marks. “The direction of ligature marks in a homicide and a suicide is always different,” said the surgeon. Besides, the doctors also found injuries to the girl’s lower lip, chin and chest.

The couple first obtained protective bail, then interim bail for Rs300,000 each from an additional district and sessions judge (South) on September 25, and got it extended at a later hearing. The IO had earlier failed to submit the investigation report and instead asked the court to grant further time. 

Initially, SHO Gizri police station, Abdul Lateef, had informed The News that Fatima had committed suicide and justified his statement by citing the JPMC’s medico-legal examiner. He had claimed that Fatima’s father did not level any accusation against her daughter’s employers but had himself suspected that she had committed suicide.  

Asima kidnap case

The judicial magistrate issued a show-cause notice to the investigation officer for failing to submit a report in a case pertaining to the alleged kidnapping of a 14-year-old housemaid, Asima .

The court directed the IO to submit a reply explaining his failure to submit the report on the disappearance of Asima, whose mother claimed that her daughter had been kidnapped by her employers. 

She said her daughter had been serving as a housemaid at a bungalow located in the area of the Darakhshan police station, but one year ago she was told by the employers that her daughter had gone missing.  At the previous hearing, the court had made the IO duty- bound to present the investigation report, but he failed to do so. The court directed him to ensure the submission of the report at the next hearing.