Man acquitted of murder of Sikh woman

LAHORE: Additional District and Sessions Judge Irfan Basra Friday acquitted a person namely Hafiz Shahzad of murder charges of a Canadian national Sikh woman, Rajvinder Kaur Gill.

The court has acquitted the accused after prosecution failed to prove charges levelled against him. It is pertinent to mention here that the main accused in this murder case namely Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Roy is still at large. On January 2, 2013, Sarwar Road police had registered an FIR on the complaint of Sikandar Singh Gill, father of the victim girl. The complainant stated that his daughter Rajvinder Kaur reached Lahore Airport from Canada on August 25, 2012. He said when she reached Lahore, she had Canadian passport bearing number 354321045161686, cash, a laptop, gold ornaments and other things of personal use with her. He added that she was in contact with Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Roy and Shahzad but so far they could not find her neither she called her family telephonically after reaching Pakistan. Sarwar Road police arrested Shahzad and produced him before the Cantonment judicial magistrate. Later, police claimed that Hafiz Shahzad had confessed to his crime–kidnapping and murdering the woman on the behest of Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Roy. As per police, Shahid had invited Rajvinder Kaur to Pakistan for a diamond auction in Lahore. Shahid and Gill had known each other for a long time and he had told her that he would pay her back the money he owed her when she came to Lahore. Shahid and Shahzad received Gill at the airport and drove her to Sheikhupura on motorway.