LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday ordered the Capital Chief Police Officer (CCPO) to submit a detailed report about the ‘murder’ of a Sikh lady Rajvindar Kaur Gill, who came to Pakistan on August 25 last year and went missing at the same day.
Justice Sardar Tariq Masood on Wednesday resumed hearing on the petition moved by lady’s father Sikandar Singh seeking her recovery. Superintendent of Police (SP) Ijaz Gilani of legal branch appeared on behalf of the CCPO and requested the court to delay the hearing for about four days as the police was not in a position to say anything on the matter.
Suddenly, Advocate Aftab Bajwa, the counsel of petitioner, produced press clippings stating that the lady had been murdered since the day she arrived in Lahore while the 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 within two hours.
Following court’s strict notice, CCPO Aslam Tareen along with his ‘legal advisors’ reached the court before completion of the deadline of two hours.
In his written reply before the court, Tareen admitted that Intelligence Bureau (IB) had on Tuesday handed over a man namely Hafiz Shahzad Hussain to the City Police after taking him into custody.
The accused had confessed the crime and recorded his statement in which he claimed that he along with main accused Shahid Ghzanfar killed the Canadian national Sikh lady after kidnapping her on August 25. Later, they thrown her into the Khanpur Canal, Sheikhupura district, the CCPO said quoting the accused.
He added Ghazanfer was at the run and had reached Germany and police had initiated the process of his arrest through Interpol. The CCPO’s reply said according to the initial interrogation of accused, Ghazanfar had called the Sikh lady into the Pakistan as there was some monetary dispute between them.
The reply further disclosed police minutely gone through the letter sent by Canadian High Commission Islamabad on September 27 which cleared that Kaur might have proceeded to Sargodha or Karachi to meet Iqbal Hussain, a television anchor.
“According to victim’s sister Rajwant, she must have met Hussain via an Indian matrimonial dating service which subsequently identified as ‘Shadi.com’,” the reply pointed out.
The City Police also produced two letters having information from FIA and IB regarding the traveling history of Kaur. In the letters, the CCPO submitted that Kaur got the ‘business pleasure’ visa from Pakistan on August 18 claiming that she wanted to come to Pakistan for gem business and sightseeing.
The court 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 the 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.