The Sindh High Court’s (SHC) single-member judicial commission inquiring into young entrepreneur murder on Tuesday took serious notice of the police’s indifferent attitude towards handling Mir Raza Ali’s murder case, from the recovery of the body, examination of the crime scene and to the conduct of the autopsy in an unprofessional manner.
Hearing the proceedings of the commission, Justice Omar Sial took exception to non-compliance with the police investigation procedure with regard to the shifting of the body, securing of the crime scene, preparation of the inquest report and conduct of the postmortem.
The commission expressed wonder over the conduct of the SHO of the Gulistan-e-Jauhar police station, who sent a head-moharar of the police station to examine the body of Raza Ali and inspection of the crime scene instead of an investigation officer and a forensic expert.
It observed that it seems that head-moharars are running every police station of the province, inquiring whether head-moharars are higher in rank than the IGP. The commission further observed that no crime scene expert of the police examined the place of the incident where the body of the young entrepreneur was found in Gulistan-e-Johaur.
It recorded statements of family members of the Raza Ali, Medico-Legal Officer Dr Osama Sheikh, Edhi volunteers who shifted the body to hospital, nursery employees who found the deceased, Gulistan-e-Jauhar police sub-inspectors who shifted the body to hospital and made the inquest report at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, and police personnel of the Talash app department who came to obtain the fingerprints of the deceased.
The commission showed pictures of the Mir Raza Ali taken after the recovery of his body and inquired MLO Dr Osama Sheikh why he did not mention every particular details about the fracture, the condition of the face and hands, and time of death correctly in first postmortem report and why all of sudden these particulars were mentioned in the second postmortem report.
Dr Osama said he had sent four blood samples and Raza Ali’s shirt for forensic and laboratory tests; however, he did not receive their results from the police. He said he had completed the report under the direct supervision of police surgeon Dr Sumaiya Syed and she had not pointed out any mistake or negligence in his report. However, after the submission of report, she raised questions about the report. He deposed that he conducted the autopsy and prepared both reports himself.
To a commission query whether he made any mistake, committed negligence or criminal negligence or facilitated anybody in this murder or had any pressure to write this report, he denied and said he prepared both reports himself without any pressure from anyone.
To a query, he said he joined the JPMC’s police surgeon department in 2022 after passing the Sindh Public Service Commission exam in 2019. He said he conducted 30 to 50 postmortems after completing diploma in medico-legal jurisprudence in 2025. He said the final report was prepared after reviewing chemical reports obtained following the exhumation.
To a question, he said he was asked to appear before the DIG East, SSP Samiullah Soomro and SSP Zubair Nazir Sheikh at the Chief Minister House for explaining the timeline of the postmortem which he first refused but later on a call from Additional IG Karachi Azad Khan he recorded his statement before the police officials on August 9.
Recording statements, family of Raza Ali told the commission that Mir Raza’s friend informed them that Raza had deleted all his social media accounts and his fiancé also asked about him. They said they started a search for Raza Ali after they did not find him at home and also informed Madadgar 15 about the disappearance. They said police first refused to register an FIR but later an FIR was registered in the evening.
They said Mir Raza’s business partners Mohammad Ahmed and Abdullah and other friends also came at residence and search his room. The mother informed the commission she found that partnership agreement was missing from the room of his son.
Raza’s sister informed the commission that Raza’s business partner Ahmed asked her to give his account number for weekly payments, to which she said her brother would give him his account number when he came. The family said the business partner also said that Raza was seen pulling out the security guard’s gun on the CCTV of his Bahadurabad shop; however, the gun was not found at the house.
They said Raza’s friend also came home to show the CCTV video and searched Raza’s rented vehicle. They said the friends later took a monopoly game box from the vehicle without showing what was in the box.
They said they managed to obtain information from an online transport service about the last drop location of Mir Raza and reached Gulistan-e-Johaur for searching him. They said they went to nearby guest house to ascertain his whereabouts, where people first refused but later allowed them to search the rooms and CCTV footage.
They said SHO Ferozabad Adeel Afzal and SDPO Shahra-e-Faisal Arshad Afridi had come to their house on July 31 and shown some video footages about Mir Raza Ali. They said police officials told them that the cause of death of Raza was found to be suicide.
Police personnel Mohammad Arif from the Talash app department informed the commission that he could not obtain fingerprints of the body as tips of right-hand fingers were rubbed with purple solution and his left hand was damaged. He said the body had been shifted from the crime scene to an ambulance when he reached the spot.
He said the hand of Raza Ali was in such a bad condition that I thought the flesh was come out I he touched it. He deposed that he could not succeed in taking fingerprints despite several attempts and later he obtained pictures of the hands.
Edhi volunteers Mohsin Shah and Javed Khan told the commission that they received information from the control room about the body and reached the spot after 12:45pm on July 29. They said it was bullet- riddled body and the face was badly decomposed. They said the body was decaying. They said no police personnel came to examine the body and they shifted the deceased from the crime scene with the help of nursery workers.
Nursery workers Yasir and Qaiser told the commission that they cannot say that the body was present on July 28. They said they did not hear any gunshot near the nursery during July 28 and July 29 and informed that a police mobile used to station around 100 feet away from the crime scene.
The judicial commission summoned Mir Raza Ali’s business partners Abdullah, Ahmed, friends Razik and Haitham, online taxi driver Ahsanullah, SHO Ferozabad, SDPO Shahra-e-Faisal and others for recording their statements on September 3.
Mir Raza, an IBA graduate and young businessman, was found dead in Karachi’s Gulistan-e-Jauhar area on July 29, a day after he went missing. The Sindh government constituted judicial commission after public outrage on murder to examine the facts and the circumstances leading to and surrounding Ali’s death and point out the deficiencies in the investigation of the case.
