Lahore High Court orders investigation into Sikh woman’s murder

Lahore,Pakistan: The Lahore High Court has ordered Lahore police to complete investigation into the murder of a Sikh woman, Rajvinder Kaur Gill, immediately after Capital Chief Police Officer Aslam Tareen disclosed that she was murdered immediatelyafter she landed in Pakistan.

Sikh woman Rajvindar Kaur Gill came to Pakistan on August 25 last year and went missing the same day.

The court during Wednesday’s hearing of the petition moved by her father Sikandar Singh seeking her recovery rejected the request of Superintendent of Police (SP) Ijaz Gilani for delaying the matter for about four days.

Advocate Aftab Bajwah, the counsel of the petitioner, produced press clippings before the court, stating that the woman was murdered on the day she arrived in Lahore while police had also taken into custody an accused.

Justice Sardar Tariq Masood rejected the police’s plea to delay the proceedings after studying the clippings, and asked the SP to make sure the presence of the CCPO in the court within two hours. Following court’s strict notice, CCPO Muhammad Aslam Tareen along with his ‘legal advisers’ reached the court.

In his written reply before the court, Tareen admitted that Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Tuesday had handed over a man named Hafiz Shahzad Hussain to the City police.

The accused had confessed to the crime and recorded his statement in which he claimed that he along with main accused Shahid Ghzanfar killed the Canadian national Sikh woman after kidnapping her on August 25. Later, they dumped her body into the Khanpur canal in Sheikhupura district, the CCPO said quoting the accused.

He added Ghazanfer was on the run and had reached Germany and police had initiated the process of his arrest through Interpol. The CCPO’s reply said that according to the initial interrogation of accused, Ghazanfar had called the Sikh woman to Pakistan as there was some monetary dispute between both. The reply disclosed police minutely gone through the letter sent by Canadian High Commission in Islamabad on September 27 which suggested that Kaur might have proceeded to Sargodha or Karachi to meeting Iqbal Hussain, a television anchor.

According to the victim’s sister Rajwant, she must have met Hussain via an Indian matrimonial dating service Shadi.com, the reply pointed out.

The City police also produced two letters having information from FIA and IB regarding the travel history of Kaur. In the letters, the CCPO submitted that Kaur got the ‘business pleasure’ visa from Pakistan on August 18 claiming that she want to come to Pakistan for gem business and sightseeing. He said she reached Pakistan on August 23 via Dubai by Emirates Airlines. The police gave only two telephone numbers to IB for their calls details during July 1 to July 31.

The court judge directed the CCPO not to completely rely on the confessional statement of the accused. The judge said police should unearth the reality as it was the matter of a life.

Replying to a query, the CCPO undertook police would register an FIR after receiving application from Sikandar Singh Gill, father of Kaur. A female official from Canadian High Commission also attended the court proceedings.The court will resume hearing on January

7. Talking to newsmen after the court proceedings, Sikandar Singh mourned the death of his daughter and demanded her body.

He also appealed to the court to do justice with her daughter’s case as soon as possible.

Responding to a query, Singh said, “He doesn’t know whether adviser to interior ministry Rehman Malik, PPP leader Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, TV anchor Iqbal Hussain or anyone else is behind the murder of his daughter.”

The Singh said he had produced calls record of Rajvindar and now it was the duty of the police to probe all those to whom his daughter had contacted before and after arriving Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Sarwar Road police have registered a case on the complaint of father of Canadian National Rajvindar Kaur Gill.

Police have registered the FIR on the directions of the LHC after listening to the reply of the CCPO that they had arrested an accused who confessed to killing Rajvindar Kaur and later dumped her body in Khanpur canal.

According to Sikandar Singh Gill, father of Kaur, the victim reached Lahore airport from Canada on August 25 and was carrying Canadian passport, cash, laptop, gold ornaments and other things of personal use. He said that she was in contact with Shahid Ghazanfar alias Karishna Roy, Shehzad and others but so far they could not find her. He alleged that Shahid Ghazanfar with the help of his accomplices kidnapped his daughter to get her money.

Source:The International News

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