KARACHI, Dec 30 Police have failed to track down their four colleagues, including a deputy superintendent of police, who were booked over a month ago for killing a 30-year-old murder suspect in their custody, as the investigation officer of the case moved to the police surgeon for proper interpretation of the cause of the victim's death.

The Sharea Faisal police had registered on Nov 25 a murder case (FIR 915/2008) against DSP Hafeez Junejo, Inspector Hadi Bux, Sub-inspector Malik Ashraf and ASI Javed Chaudhry of the investigation police for torturing Kishan Chandar to death.

According to the postmortem report, the cause of the victim's death was “haemorrhage in the stomach and small intestine due to chronic gastritis and multiple ulcers”.

However, the victim's family claimed that the young man's health was good and he had never complained of even a stomach ache.

The postmortem reports also showed that the victim's body bore marks of torture.

The SP of Saddar, Dr Amir Shaikh, who is in charge of the investigation, told Dawn that the police had been making hectic efforts to track down the suspects.

He said the police would submit a final charge-sheet against the suspects within four to five days. “We are just waiting for the final opinion of the police surgeon to establish whether it was a case of natural death or the victim died from police torture,” he added.

He said the postmortem report was the most important and reliable piece of evidence in the custodial death. “We want to know whether the haemorrhage in the stomach was caused by gastritis and ulcer, or the physical torture led to the rupture,” he added.

The postmortem on the victim's body was conducted by a board of doctors, comprising Prof Farhat Mirza, a forensic expert in the Dow University of Health Sciences, Dr Hamid Ali Parhyar, the police surgeon, and Medico-Legal Officer Dr Karar Hussain, in the presence of the EDO (Revenue) under Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The victim, who was booked in a case of murder of his maternal uncle, Amit Kumar, on Oct 11 by the Sharea Faisal police, was surrendered before the police by his brother, Bhero Mal, on Nov 4. The following day, the man died in police custody.

The victim's brother alleged that Kishan Chandar was tortured to death by the Sharea Faisal police, who claimed that the young suspect died of cardiac arrest.

He claimed that the killers of Amit Kumar had kidnapped his brother after killing the victim and they threw his brother at a desolate place near New Sabzi Mandi off the Super Highway on Nov 3. He said he had himself taken his brother to the police as he had been booked in the murder case.

The case against the absconding police officials was registered on the order of the Sindh High Court on a complaint of Bhero Mal, who stated that the police were not registering an FIR.

Meanwhile, sources said that the police raided houses of some police officers who were believed to be the suspects' close friends.

They said the raids proved futile as the suspects might have been tipped off about the police action.

Trader's wife killed

A 45-year-old woman, mother of three teenagers, was found slaughtered at her apartment in Umeed Mohammed Baloch Goth on Tuesday.

The Baghdadi police said the victim, Yasmin Bano, wife of Arif, was alone in her first-floor flat in Sama Manzil, as her husband, a shopkeeper at Tariq Road, was at work and her children at their educational institutions.

The body was shifted to the Civil Hospital for a postmortem examination. Sources at the hospital's medico-legal section told Dawn that the victim's throat had been slit and her body also bore multiple wounds.

The police said the investigators were unable to interview the victim's family members as they were busy in her funeral.

They said the incident seemed motivated by a personal enmity as no valuable was reported missing by the family.

No case was registered till late, the police said.

Charred body

The charred body of an unidentified young man, wrapped in a quilt, was found at a desolate place near Ehsanabad, a locality near Sohrab Goth.

The body was taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for a postmortem examination. Sources at the hospital's medico-legal section said the charred body was at least three days old. The victim appeared to be in his mid-20s.

Later the body was kept at Edhi's morgue for want of identification.

Woman, daughter killed

A 45-year-old woman and her 23-year-old daughter were killed when they were run over by a minibus in Azizabad.

The police said that a 25-year-old motorcyclist, with his mother and a sister riding pillion, was returning to their Liaquatabad home when the scarf of his sister became stuck in the rear wheel of the motorbike.

They said the motorbike fell and was run over by a minibus.

The bodies and the injured man were taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where the dead women were identified as Raazi Bibi and Hina, and the injured as Naseer.

The police have taken the driver into custody, but no case was registered till late night.