Mir Raza murder case: Judicial commission turns down MLO's request to record further statement

KARACHI: A judicial commission formed to investigate the circumstances and possible negligence in the Mir Raza Ali murder case declined on Monday a request by Dr Osama Shaikh — the medico-legal officer who conducted the slain businessman’s first autopsy — to record a further statement.

Sindh High Court’s Justice Omar Sial, who heads the one-member commission, observed that Sheikh had “appeared on social media” and said that he had “more to tell the commission than what he told it earlier”, according to the order released after the latest hearing.

“Upon a query as to whether he wanted to say that the death of Mir Raza was a suicide and not a murder, he said that is not what he wanted to say. He clarified that it was not a suicide. He wanted to justify his finding that the bullet came from the front,” the order, a copy of which is available with Dawn, said.

There has been a controversy over Ali’s autopsy in the case, with Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiyya Syed pointing out flaws in the first postmortem findings. Following that, Ali’s body was exhumed and a second post-mortem was conducted. Its findings concluded that the 25-year-old was shot in the back and ruled out the possibility of a suicide.

Dr Syed also told the commission at a previous hearing that she faced “threats” after disputing the findings of the first postmortem.

In his order on Monday, Justice Sial stated, “I also sense from the questions I asked of him (Sheikh) that his sole purpose in recording a further statement is to throw mud at the police surgeon and the worthy chief minister. I will not allow either. The Commission is not a forum for mud-slinging.”

The order added that the terms of reference of the commission required it determine the true facts and circumstances of the case and to attribute negligence.

“I have enough information for that. The commission has its own mind to determine what has transpired. Therefore, I decline Dr Osama Sheikh’s request,” Justice Sial added.

During his previous appearance before the commission on Sept 1, Sheikh had told the judicial commission that he was not under any influence or pressure while conducting the postmortem and had nowhere stated in his report that Ali had died by suicide.

For its part, the commission had expressed dissatisfaction with Sheikh’s answers, questioned the discrepancies between his initial and final reports and asked whether he or a sweeper had conducted the autopsy.

Sheikh had maintained that he had conducted the procedure and that the final report was issued after the exhumation and second autopsy, following 14 objections by the police surgeon.

He had added that he had declined to provide information when called to the chief minister’s house on Aug 9 in the absence of relevant documents, while the second investigation team recorded his statement on Aug 17.

The case’s investigation team was changed following objections raised by Ali’s family.

On Friday, the judicial commission had deplored that the first investigating officer of the case had hardly made any effort to probe the matter and did not fulfil legal formalities during the investigation.

The case so far

Ali’s body was found a day after he went missing on July 28. Since then, the case has been mired in controversy, with the deceased’s family accusing the police of trying to bury the facts while the investigators initially attempted to build the case around the possibility of a suicide.

Days after the recovery of Ali’s body on July 29, Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed had told Geo News that the post-mortem findings in the case had raised several questions, as some observations in the report did not appear to match the available photographs.

On August 6, a Karachi court took up an application by Ali’s father, allowed the exhumation of his body, ordered the formation of a medico-legal board for the purpose and directed that a second autopsy of Ali’s body be conducted.

The Sindh health department then constituted an eight-member board, with police surgeon Dr Syed as the convener. However, in the early hours of August 7, the board was reconstituted through an order issued by the director general of the Sindh health department.

While Dr Syed remained the convener of the new five-member board, its members were changed.

But Ali’s family rejected the new board, which also resulted in the deferment of the planned exhumation on Friday. Meanwhile, the counsel for Ali’s family, Nasir, accused the authorities of trying to bury the facts.

The Sindh government then restored the original medical board, following which Ali’s body was exhumed on August 8.

A day later, the Sindh inspector general of police’s (IG) office notified the reconstitution of the investigating team probing Ali’s death, while Karachi Additional IG Azad Khan transferred the investigation into Ali’s murder to Zaman Town police station from Ferozabad Police Station, where the case was registered under charges of kidnapping.

The order for the probe team’s reconstitution also showed that a murder charge had been added to the first information report.

The same day, the Sindh government decided to seek a judicial commission for the case’s investigation, only to defer the plan a day later after Ali’s family said they had made no such demand and had faith in the new investigation team.

On Aug 19, Ali’s parents, Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain, wrote to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, seeking his “direct supervision of the murder investigation”. They also urged the chief minister to order an investigation and departmental inquiry into the previous investigation team and immediately suspend the officers involved.

The provincial government acknowledged the letter and announced the decision on Aug 23 to form a judicial commission to determine whether the investigation in the case was being conducted impartially and to investigate the circumstances surrounding Ali’s death.

However, the counsel for Ali’s family approached the SHC, objecting to the provincial government’s decision to form a judicial commission and seeking the formation of an independent and multi-agency JIT “comprising officers who have had no previous involvement in the case”.

On Sept 2, the SHC dismissed that petition filed by Ali’s family, observing that constituting such a body was the “prerogative of the government”.

Meanwhile, the final report of Ali’s second post-mortem for the Mir Raza Ali murder case confirmed that his death was caused by a gunshot wound to the back.

“Death occurred due to cardiac rupture consequent to perforating firearm injury of the chest,” the report stated, adding that the entry wound was on the posterior thorax (back) and the exit wound on the anterior thorax (front of the chest).

“The findings are inconsistent with suicide as the manner of death,” it confirmed.