ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan today granted bail to Asmat Adamjee in the murder case of Noor Mukadam, daughter of ex-ambassador Shaukat Mukada. Asmat Adamjee is the mother of Zahir Jaffer, who is the prime suspect in the Noor Mukadam murder case.
The court approved the bail against a surety bond of Rs1 million while hearing a plea filed by Adamjee seeking her release in the Noor Mukadam murder case. The SC, nonetheless, rejected the bail plea of Zakir Jaffer — Zahir’s father — and disposed of his petition. In the last hearing on Oct 11, the Supreme Court had directed the prosecution to submit evidence against Adamjee.
On Oct 6, Zahir’s parents had filed separate petitions for bail in the apex court — nearly a week after the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had rejected their bail pleas and ordered authorities to keep them in detention until the completion of the trial.
Moved through counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed, the applications stated that the case against the petitioners was not based on tangible evidence, rather the allegations against them were highly speculative.
Last week, the trial court had indicted 12 suspects in the Noor Mukadam murder case, including Zahir and his parents.
A day before the indictment, Zahir’s parents had also approached the IHC seeking annulment of the sessions court’s order to indict 12 suspects in the case.
Noor Murder case
Noor, 27, was found murdered at a residence in Islamabad’s upscale Sector F-7/4 on July 20.
A first information report (FIR) was registered later the same day against Zahir, who was arrested from the site of the murder, under Section 302 (premeditated murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father, Shaukat Ali Mukadam.
Zahir’s parents and household staff were also arrested on July 24 over allegations of “hiding evidence and being complicit in the crime”. They were made a part of the investigation based on Shaukat’s statement, according to a police spokesperson.
In his complaint, Shaukat had stated that he had gone to Rawalpindi on July 19 to buy a goat for Eidul Azha, while his wife had gone out to pick up clothes from her tailor. When he returned home in the evening, the couple found their daughter Noor absent from their house in Islamabad.
They had found her cellphone number switched off, and started a search for her. Sometime later, Noor had called her parents to inform them that she was travelling to Lahore with some friends and would return in a day or two, according to the FIR.
The complainant said he had later received a call from the suspect, whose family were the ex-diplomat’s acquaintances. The suspect had informed Shaukat that Noor was not with him, the FIR said.
At around 10pm on July 20, the victim’s father had received a call from Kohsar police station, informing him that Noor had been murdered.
Police had subsequently taken the complainant to Zahir’s house in Sector F-7/4 where he discovered that his “daughter has been brutally murdered with a sharp-edged weapon and beheaded”, according to the FIR.
Shaukat, who identified his daughter’s body, has sought the maximum punishment under the law against Zahir for allegedly murdering his daughter. Police later said that Zahir had confessed to killing Noor, while his DNA test and fingerprints also showed his involvement in the murder.
