KARACHI: The investigation team probing the killing of 25-year-old businessman Mir Raza Ali has been reconstituted while the murder charge has been added to the case registered on his father’s complaint.
Ali’s body was found in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar last month, a day after he went missing on July 28. While his family is convinced that he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, police had previously been building the case around the possibility that he died by suicide.
However, an order released by the Sindh inspector general of police’s (IG) office on Sunday, notifying the reconstitution of the investigating team, showed that the murder charge had been added to the first information report.
The order, seen by Dawn, said the new investigating team was formed in light of Ali’s second postmortem report, which contradicted the one released after his first postmortem, to “supervise the investigation of FIR no. 795/2026 u/s 365/ 302/ 201 of the PPC”.
Initially, the first information report (FIR) was registered only under Section 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), which pertains to kidnapping.
Of the newly added sections, 302 pertains to murder and 201 to hiding the evidence of an offence or giving false information to screen the offender.
The case would now be probed by a five-member team led by Sindh Deputy IG (Crime and Investigation) Amir Farooqui and comprising Alfalah SSP Syed Muhammad Ali Raza, Korangi SP (Investigation) Qais Khan, Central SP (Investigation) Anam Tajjamul and Zaman Town SIO Ch. Ghazanfar, the police order said.
It added: “The team shall undertake a comprehensive and impartial investigation into the case from all relevant angles. The team shall identify, collect, preserve and examine any new or additional evidence and shall thoroughly examine and analyse all physical, technical, circumstantial and forensic evidence collected during the investigation.
“The team shall make all out efforts to work out the case and submit a report to the court concerned within the stipulated period. The team may co-opt any officer to assist in the investigation. Progress shall be reported on a day-to-day basis.”
On Saturday, the lawyer for Ali’s family, Jibran Nasir, had demanded that the first investigation probing the case be replaced, after a fresh post-mortem examination conducted following the exhumation of Ali’s body found that he had been shot in the back — evidence that ruled out the possibility of suicide.
Speaking to the media, he reiterated the allegation that Ali had been tortured before being murdered.
“This was murder following torture — the murder of a happy, ambitious and educated young man from Karachi,” he alleged.
The family’s lawyer also criticised senior police officials, alleging that they “do not want to investigate, but rather humiliate, harass and exhaust the family”.
Advocate Nasir added that he and the family had “no faith” in the investigation team and that they wanted the entire team changed.
More to follow
