Husband, two accomplices remanded in principal’s murder case

As the investigation into the school principal’s murder progresses, a local court on Thursday sanctioned the physical remand of the woman’s husband and two of his accomplices till January 7.

Producing the accused before the judicial magistrate for District South, the investigation officer requested the court to grant a 10-day physical remand of the three suspects.

Among the accused are the victim Ambreen Fatima’s husband, Ali Hassan, his second wife Sahar Shams and her brother Balaaj. He said the accused were due to be further interrogated.

The court was informed that the weapon used to kill the woman had been recovered from the possession of Hassan.

The officer further submitted in court that he intended to record the husband’s confessional statement, under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The court, however, rejected the stance and ordered to detain the three accused at the prison.

The IO was also directed to submit the investigation report at the next hearing.

On December 24, Hassan, who had earlier told police that his wife had been shot dead by robbers in Soldier Bazaar area on December 10, confessed to killing Ambreen. According to the police, they became suspicious of Ali’s mugging story because there was a sign of blacking on the victim’s temple, which indicated that the bullet was fired from close range. A call between Ali and Sahar and later between Sahar and her brother, in which she relayed the murder’s details, led police to arrest Ali.

Ali worked as an administrator in the same school where Ambreen was the principal, while Sahar was employed as a teacher there. Sahar and Ambreen were also friends, said police, adding that Sahar and Ali had married secretly.

Sahar’s brother, Balaaj, had been pressurising Ali to declare the second marriage which led to the latter killing his first wife, police said. Officials were still ascertaining the extent of Sahar’s involvement in the murder.

On December 10, it was reported that Ambreen Fatima, principal of a private school, was shot dead by robbers and the incident was linked to rising street crime in the city.

The suspect, Ali, had told the police at the time that he and his wife were driving around the city and had entered Parsi Colony, a locality within the vicinity of Soldier Bazaar police station. There, two unidentified gunmen on a motorcycle had intercepted them and demanded their mobile phones, cash and other valuables.

He claimed he had made a slight movement to hand over his phone to them but suspecting his motives, they opened fire, killing his wife.

Sea View murder case

A court extended the remand of Junaid Shah, a co-accused in the Zafir Zuberi murder case, till December 30.

The accused was arrested on Saturday from the area of Risala police station after. The man had run away from a court which rejected his bail plea.

Shah had obtained pre-arrest bail but the court concerned later ordered him appear. But the suspect approached the Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) by moving a bail plea but the court rejected it and ordered his arrest.

The suspect was later produced before the court of the Judicial Magistrate (South) which remanded him in police custody. At yesterday’s hearing, the man was once again sent to prison till December 30.

The key accused, Khawar Burney, who has been arrested, has recorded his confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Another co-accused, Abdur Rehman, has also recorded his confessional statement.

Rehman said, under oath, that Khawar Burney was the key accused who shot at the deceased Zafir Zuberi. The suspect claimed that Khawar Burney had chased the Mercedes car of Zuberi and critically inured him by gunfire on December 3 in the area of Phase-VIII, Defence Housing Authority.

Khawar Burney has also confessed that he had “mistakenly opened gunfire which killed Zafir Zuberi”.

The police have freed three men in this murder case after they were found innocent.