KARACHI: Judicial Magistrate (East) Aftab Ahmed Baghi on Wednesday sought a supplementary challan of the Dua Zahra case and the call-record data of Zaheer Ahmed from April 15 to 19.
During the course of the proceedings, Jibran Nasir, the counsel of Syed Mehdi Ali Kazmi, argued that the C-class challan is automatically rejected after the ruling of re-investigations in any case.
Raising questions over the role of police, the lawyer said, “the suspect cameto the police but he was not arrested.” He maintained that Dua was “forced to tell a lie”.
“Who would be responsible if Zaheer flees the country?” asked the lawyer,” he maintained that the suspect should fight his case in court.
At this, the judge asked the public prosecutor how did he record the statement of the suspect who is not in police custody.
“Was the suspect present in Karachi on April 15 or he was in Lahore?” asked the judge and sought the call-record data of Zaheer.
As per the data record of Zaheer’s previous phone number, he was not present in Karachi on April 15 and 16, the investigation officer apprised the court, adding that they will have to obtain the CDR of his new number. At this, the court directed the investigation officer (IO) to produce the CDR of his new phone number before the court and adjourned that hearing till July 20.
Talking to the press outside the City Court, DSP Shoukat Shahani, the IO in the case, said that the court has directed to submit a supplementary challan in the case by July 20.
In light of Dua’s medical report, clauses will be included in the case, he added.
SHC serves notices to IG Sindh, health and home departments
A day earlier, Kazmi moved the Sindh High Court, seeking recovery of his daughter and dissolution of her illegal marriage.
Taking up the petition of Kazmi, the SHC issued notices to IG Sindh, health, and home departments and others to appear before the court on July 21.
In his petition, Kazmi said that his daughter was underage, a fact which had been proved in a medical board’s report, and her marriage should, therefore, be declared as invalid.
He said Zaheer had kidnapped his daughter from Karachi and forcibly married her in Punjab by falsely declaring her age as 18 years, adding that the medical board constituted by the court had confirmed that Dua’s age was about 15 years and that proved that she was underage and her marriage could not be declared lawful under the Punjab Marriage Registration Act.
The high court was requested to declare the marriage unlawful and hand over the custody of the girl to the petitioner. Besides, criminal proceedings may be initiated against Zaheer under penal law.
