In the initial report, Police had concluded that the 24-year-old doctor practicing at a private hospital in Clifton had committed suicide by shooting herself in her home in DHA. Later the police arrested her friends–Junaid Khan, Syed Waqas Hussain Rizvi, Tabish Yaseen Qureshi and Saad Nasir Siddiqui.
On Monday, the matter came up before Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja for framing of charges against the suspects.
All the four suspects appeared in court on bail.
The judge read the charges out loud that the suspects were accused of. The judge read out the charges to the accused. However, all of them pleaded not guilty and opted to contest the case.
The judge summoned prosecution witnesses to record their testimonies against the accused persons.
The court adjourned the hearing till Sept 4.
The officer investigating the crime has put forward names of 38 witnesses, including the family members of the victim, a judicial magistrate who had supervised exhumation of the body for a second autopsy on court’s order, members of the medical board and others.
On the final date, the court dismissed an application from the suspects Khan and Rizvi, pleading to exclude Section 376 (punishment of rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) from the case.
The state prosecutor was against the idea of accepting the plea, arguing that both men were deliberately avoiding giving their samples for DNA matching with those of the victim, which had been preserved at a laboratory in Jamshoro.
A case was registered under Sections 322 (manslaughter), 376, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offense, or giving false information to screen offender) of the PPC at the Gizri police station.
