Sea View murder co-accused flees from court after bail cancellation

A co-accused in the murder case of teenager Zafir Zuberi, who was shot dead in December on Sea View Road, escaped from court on Monday after his interim bail was cancelled by a judge.

As the final charge sheet of the murder case was submitted in the court of judicial magistrate (south) stating that the main accused Khawar Burney along with two others killed Zuberi at the behest of his friends, the magistrate also cancelled the bail of Hammad, another co-accused.

Hammad then approached the additional district and sessions judge (South), housed in the same building, for bail, but the sessions judge too rejected his plea and ordered police to arrest him. However, Hammad managed to flee from the court premises, and the police are yet to arrest him.

Zuberi, 18, was shot dead and his friend was left injured on December 3, 2017 on Sea View Road, DHA Phase 8 in a road rage incident. Zafir and his friends were speeding along on the road when they hit a motorcyclist and drove off instead of stopping.

According to eyewitness, a jeep carrying the injured biker then chased their car and opened fire at it. According to police, the shooters fired at the car at least nine times and then also climbed out of their vehicle to thrash the car’s occupants.

The charge sheet stated that Khawar Burney’s friends instigated him to shoot at the car, he killed Zuberi and that the murder weapon belongs to him. Azhan, a friend of Zuberi, identified Khawar as the shooter, and another eye-witness Abdur Rauf had also identified Khawar as the killer. Khawar, Abdur Rauf and Junaid Shah are already in custody in the case.

Bookies granted bail

Fifteen suspects arrested a day earlier for running a gambling operation regarding the Pakistan Super League 2018 final were granted bail by the judicial magistrate (South) for the sum of Rs10,000 each.

However, Darakhshan police, which had arrested them, told the court that they had been found using drugs and police had seized drugs, cash and cell phones from them. The officials said the suspects were also drug peddlers and had been involved in money laundering. The police took the plea that it was fair to send the suspects into physical remand. However, the court sent them to prison on a 14-day judicial remand instead.