Zahir brought to court on stretcher despite being mentally fit

Islamabad-In a major development, the doctors and psychologists of Adiala Jail on Thursday submitted a detailed medical report before the court while declaring Zahir Zakir Jaffar, the alleged murderer of Noor Mukaddam, fully fit both mentally and physically to stand the trial.

The report was submitted before Additional and Sessions Judge (ASJ) Atta Rabbani when he took up the proceedings in the murder case. “We had carried out examination of the prime suspect Zahir Zakir Jaffar and found him fit for trial,” said the doctors in medical report produced before the judge.  Shaukat Ali Mukaddam, father of Noor Mukaddam, along with his lawyers Babar Hayyat and Nisar Asghar was also present in the courtroom. Likewise, other lawyers including prosecutor Rana Hassan Abbas, Sajjad Ahmed Bhatti (counsel for accused Jan Muhammad, Iftikhar and Jamil) and Basharat Ullah Advocate also attended the hearing. Earlier, police produced Zahir Zakir Jaffar before the court on a stretcher as if he is seriously sick physically and not fit mentally. Sajjad Ahmed Bhatti requested the court to send back the prime suspect to temporary lock up as his health condition is not good. “I don’t want to summon the suspect in the courtroom as sympathy,” remarked ASJ Atta Rabbani. However, he added the accused was summoned in courtroom because there was an application submitted before the court.

Meanwhile, Basharat Ullah, the counsel for Zahir Zakir Jaffar, cross examined the Investigation Officer (IO) of Islamabad police Inspector Abdul Sattar. According to Sattar, he reached the crime scene with five other policemen ASI Zubair Mazhar, constable Abid Raffique, Aitzaz and lady constable Aqsa after receiving the information about murder of Noor on July 20, 2021. He said the team of forensic experts was not called as per police diary. By July 27, he said, investigators received CD-R of accused and deceased and others. Abdul Sattar said all the accused, including Zahir Zakir Jaffar, his parents Zakir Jaffar and Ismat Adamjee, and cook Jamil were under arrest. 

“No official of any mobile company was grilled by police,” he said adding that police had not obtained data of Noor Mukaddam. “Neither Shaukat Mukaddam stated before police he received Noor’s calls on WhatsApp,” he mentioned. The numbers of pages of CD-R of Zahir and statement he gave before police are different. Police had the data of Noor Mukaddam till 10:46am. “Noor Mukaddam had made several phone calls and received as well from various people,” said Abdul Sattar. He told court that Noor was in contact with a specific mobile number on July 19 and 20 but the person was not interrogated. “I had not written anywhere that the phone of Noor Mukaddam is not getting unlocked due to which preparation of transcript is not possible,” he said.

The IO of Islamabad police said he had not included mother of Noor in investigation adding that Noor was in touch on phone with her mother at the time of her murder. The CD-R data is lacking signatures of anyone including me, he said adding that Zahir and Noor talked to each other on phone for 668 seconds on July 20 at 1:53pm. He said the applicant had not disclosed before him that he spoke to Zahir on phone. “Asmat Adamjee and Zakir Jaffar reached Islamabad from Karachi on July 21 at 9:18am via a flight,” he said. He added he had not written letter to any mobile company to obtain ownership of SIMs. “The map prepared by police is also lacking jumping or fleeing attempt of Noor,” IO told the judge. He said he read FIR on crime scene adding that applicant had not mentioned in FIR that Zahir Zakir was present on crime scene. Even, the applicant had not mentioned in FIR that body of Noor was lying at crime scene. Investigators had not obtained the CCTV footages from the banglows located in front and behind the house of Jaffars. “The suspected killer Zahir was scheduled to jet off to Doha from Islamabad on July 19,” he said. He said he did know about damaged mobile screen of accused. Police only collected evidence and launched investigation just on one floor of house. After completion of cross examination of IO by Basharat Ullah Advocate, ASJ Atta Rabbani deferred hearing in Noor Mukaddam murder case till January 24, 2022.

Article source: https://nation.com.pk/21-Jan-2022/zahir-brought-to-court-on-stretcher-despite-being-mentally-fit