KARACHI, April 3: Police recently released suspects in the murder case of a young man shortly after their capture not by the law-enforcers but the complainant, it has been reliably learnt.

Sources told Dawn that the complainant tracked down suspects in the murder case of his nephew, nabbed them and handed them over to police. He did not mind doing the job of the police, happy in the knowledge that an inquiry would now be launched and the suspects – one of them allegedly in possession of the victim’s cellphone – would be interrogated.

They said that the complainant’s consternation knew no bounds when he learnt that the police released the suspects at the first “opportunity”.

Twenty-four-year-old Ali Meer was killed in the small hours of January 28, 2008. His strangulated body was found in the CD shop where he used to work and sleep.

The shop was located on Maison Road in the jurisdiction of the Jackson police.

Police collected three tea cups from the crime scene as evidence. It was brought to their notice that the victim’s cellphone and some of his cash were missing.

A case (FIR 28/08) was lodged by the victim’s uncle, Sirtaj Khan, as a complainant with the Jackson police under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

According to the shop owner, who lives in his first-floor house above the shop, people who visited Ali must have called him on his cellphone because he (the shop owner) heard no knock on the door that night. Relatives of the victim quoted the shop owner as saying that he would have heard the knock if one had been made.

Sirtaj Khan sent the victim’s body to his hometown in the NWFP for burial.

Disturbed over the murder, some relatives of the victim kept calling his cellphone and were beside themselves with surprise when, a month after the murder, their call got through. But the person on the other end of the line did not talk and immediately disconnected the call.

This was considered a breakthrough by the victim’s relatives, though they were advised against making further calls to the number by Sirtaj Khan.

Instead Mr Khan asked a girl to talk the person in possession of the victim’s cellphone into meeting her. During their conversation, the man told the girl that his name was Ibrahim and asked her to call him on another number saying that it was dangerous for him to use that number any more.

She asked him to meet her at the Mazar-i-Quaid. He, however, did not turn up on the appointed day. Acting on the instructions of Sirtaj Khan, the girl phoned the suspect again and proposed Bilawal Chowrangi as a new meeting point.

While the girl waited for Ibrahim at the agreed upon place and hour, two persons in a rickshaw approached her and said Ibrahim had asked them to bring her along. At that moment, Sirtaj Khan and his associates fell upon Ibrahim’s men and overpowered them.

They handed over the suspects to the Jackson police, who later tracked down Ibrahim and took him into custody.

The police, however, released the suspects shortly afterwards.

The sources told Dawn that the suspects bribed their way out of police custody.

However, the inquiry officer was suspended when the matter was reported to the SSP investigation by the relevant DSP.

The sources told Dawn that while Ibrahim had again been taken into custody, the crucial call details of the night of January 28 had not been retrieved from the telecoms service.