The Mir Raza murder case report is likely to reach the Sindh government by 15 October, the registrar of the judicial commission has said. The commission is examining the murder of young entrepreneur Mir Raza, and the registrar said the text was still being prepared. Staff were working through the weekend and into the night.
When the report may be filed
The Nation published the registrar's account of the 15 October target. ARY News reported the same expectation, that the commission's report was likely to be sent to the Sindh government by that date. Both describe the timing as likely. Justice Umar Sial, head of the commission, is due to hear cases at the Hyderabad circuit bench until 7 November.
Replies from the inquiry chief
Before this update, the commission put 19 questions to Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Amir Farooqi, who leads the investigation team. A DIG is a senior police officer. Farooqi told the commission he had not found flaws in the earlier inquiry that would have changed the course of the probe. He did accept that the first phase had irregularities, both in how the body was preserved and in how the scene was secured.
Investigators had gathered evidence as the law requires, he said. Even so, he thought it would have been better if the holster, a bullet casing, a lighter and a cigarette packet had been recovered on the first day. The ground was uneven, with bushes, grass and rubbish. A fire had been lit about 15 feet from the spot where the body was found.
Money trails and police conduct
The Mir Raza judicial commission asked whether the team had looked at motives tied to extortion, forced collection of money, blackmail or threats. Farooqi said officers were still testing more than one possibility. Police personnel and other people linked to the case are also being examined, and anyone shown to have broken the law will face strict action, he said.
Information on Mir Raza's cryptocurrency trading and accounts had already been taken from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), the agency that investigates cybercrime. Further material on cryptocurrency and other financial transactions had not yet come from the NCCIA or from the State Bank of Pakistan, the country's central bank. Farooqi said those records would be added to the investigation file and reviewed before findings were placed before a court.
He added that officers had tried to keep digital material private, but some of it had reached the media before the investigation began. The Mir Raza murder case report is the commission's final account for the Sindh government. Farooqi's pending financial records are a separate step: he said they would be studied before police findings were put before a court.
