Zain murder case: LHC seeks record relatedto murderer fleeing country

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday sought the record related to Mustafa Kanju fleeing the country on an appeal moved by Punjab Prosecution Department against his acquittal in a murder case of Zain Rauf, a labourer’s son who was killed three year ago.

Mustafa, a son of former state minister Siddique Kanju, had fled the country after his acquittal in the case. A division bench headed by Justice Sadaqat Ali and Justice Shehram Sarwar directed the CCPO Lahore to submit travelling record of Mustafa on the next hearing. The prosecution told the court that the suspect fled the country on Oct 30, 2015 and the summons issued by the court were not served on him.

The government said the decision of the trial court was premature as there were many other witnesses. There were other evidences, including empties recovered from the scene, which also matched with the Kalashnikov recovered from the suspect. The department prayed the bench to set aside the trial court’s verdict.

An anti-terrorism court had acquitted the accused after all 14 witnesses, including complainant Suhail Afzal, an uncle of Zain Rauf, turned hostile and refused to identify Mustafa who was the main accused in the case.

South Cantt police arrested Mustafa from his home town Lodhran and registered an FIR against him under 7-ATA and Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code over alleged killing of Zain – a 16-year old orphan and resident of Street 11, Cavalry Ground – and his friend Husnain.

Mustafa was going somewhere on his BMW car bearing number plate LWK-77 when it collided with another car coming from the other side. At this, Kanju got infuriated and opened fire, resulting in the killing of Zain and Husnain, who were passers-by. The woman whose vehicle hit his car, however, had fled the scene.