Canadian woman murder case: Accused tried to tamper with evidence

ISLAMABAD: New developments took place in the Sara Inam murder case Sunday as the police revealed that the accused, Shahnawaz — son of senior journalist Ayaz Amir — tried tampering with evidence.

Following the end of their remand, the father-son duo will be presented before court again on September 26 (today). The police said they had recovered six mobile phones from the crime scene, five of them belonged to Shahnawaz, while one of them was registered in the victim’s name. The police added that the accused had broken one of his own as well as his wife’s phone with the dumbbells — the weapon of offense— to erase the data.

“The accused tried to conceal evidence in the case by breaking the mobile phones that he used to contact the victim,” police sources told The News. All recovered phones have been sent for forensic analysis, the police said, sources said, adding that they would find out the reason behind the dispute between the couple by covering the data from the phones.

According to sources, the accused also cut the Canadian passport of the victim with scissors to make it invalid. Pieces of her passport, as well as the scissors, have been recovered from the site. The car bought for Sara has been seized and transferred to the police station.

Meanwhile, A district and sessions court granted the police one-day physical remand of senior journalist Ayaz Amir in the murder case of his daughter-in-law, a Canadian national. The police took Ayaz Amir into custody a day after the murder of his daughter-in-law, Sarah Inam.

At the outset of Sunday’s hearing, the police produced the noted journalist before duty judge Zahid Tirmizi. Amir told the court that he was in Chakwal when the murder took place. “I informed the police about the incident myself. I gave the address of the farmhouse to the SHO,” said the journalist.

There is no evidence against Ayaz Amir in the murder case, his lawyer argued, adding that the police also confirmed that they had received information about the murder by the journalist. Urging the court to release his client, the lawyer said, “Ayaz Amir is not nominated in the FIR.”

The police, terming it a high-profile case, pleaded with the court to grant five-day physical remand of the suspect’s father to process investigation. The court, however, granted the police one-day physical remand of Amir and adjourned the hearing.