Shahnawaz, mother indicted in Sara Inam murder case

BY UZMA ZAFAR

ISLAMABAD: A District and Session Court on Monday indicted the main accused Shahnawaz Amir and his mother Samina Shah in the Sara Inam murder case. The main accused was found guilty of murder in police challan as he had confessed to the murder during the investigation.

The court has called the prosecution’s witnesses on December 14. According to the challan, the main accused had told the police during the investigation that when Sara Inam did not send him money (sometime before her murder) she had a heated telephonic conversation with him and he had divorced her on the phone.

The suspect told the police that after the divorce, Sara Inam had reached Islamabad from Abu Dhabi on September 22. He furthered that she had started arguing with him in the bedroom that night and had demanded to return the money she had sent to him.

On which, according to the police challan, the suspect first hit Sara Inam with a showpiece and injured her. When Sara Inam started making noise, the accused picked up a dumbbell and hit her several times on the head.

The challan also stated that, on the crime scene, Samina Shah, the mother of the main accused, told the police that her son had a fight with his wife Sara Inam and he killed her by hitting her on the head with a dumbbell.

After the arrest, the main accused had confessed that he killed his wife during a fight. According to the challan, the main accused told the police that, he hid his wife’s body in a bathroom tub before it was recovered by the police on his identification.

During the hearing Monday, Judge Atta Rabbani dismissed the request of co-accused Samina Shah in the Sara Inam murder case to be discharged from the case. The co-accused had requested to be discharged before the indictment. Samina Shah appeared before the court along with her lawyer Nisar Asghar.

At the outset of the hearing, the lawyer told the court that according to the police, the presence of Samina Shah was found but they failed to find any intervention. The lawyer further requested that the mother of the main accused be discharged from the case as the prosecution’s case was not against her.

Advocate Rahim told the court that it is believed that everyone had dinner together that night and said that it is in the police record that Sara visited her husband after the divorce. “What happened when these three people sat there in the evening,” he asked.