SHC grants bail to Ranipur ‘pir,’ rejects spouse’s plea in maid’s murder case

HYDERABAD: On Wednesday, the Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court granted protective bail to Pir Syed Fayyaz Shah for a sum of Rs50,000 till Sept 26 but denied the same to his wife, Hina Shah. However, both were prime suspects in the murder case of their minor housemaid, Fatima Furro, at their mansion in Ranipur on Aug 14.

The division bench comprising Justices Mahmood A Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Sangi noted that counsel for Ms. Shah would have to satisfy the court first on how her application could be entertained because she had earlier approached the court’s Sukkur bench on August 17 and was bailed for seven days. Still, she failed to approach the proper forum for seeking relief during the bail term.

It showed that she misused the concession granted to her; hence, the surety she had submitted to the court had already been forfeited for non-compliance.

The bench also issued notice to additional prosecutor general directing him to appear in court on Sept 26 and said that till then Fayaz Shah would not be arrested for the crime (No.126/23) filed under Sections 302, 34, 370, 374, 328-A, 506, 171, 311, 376(3), 377 PPC read with Section 3, 14 of the Sindh Prohibition of Employment of Children Act 2017, and Sections 6, 7 of Anti-Terrorism Act.

The applicants argued in the bail application that the FIR registered against them was fabricated and the result of mala fide intentions of local police and the complainant. It was lodged with ulterior motives to cause harassment, humiliation, arrest, and detention of the applicants, they said.

The applicants’ counsel said that the alleged incident occurred on August 14, 2023, but the FIR was lodged on August 16 after a delay of two days, and no plausible explanation was given for the delay in the FIR.

He said Fayaz Shah was not initially nominated in the FIR; police subsequently added his name. The complainant had narrated a story based on ‘hearsay,’ and no specific role was assigned to the applicants for causing the murder of Fatima alias Saya Furro in the FIR, he said.

The complainant did not mention in the FIR Naseem, son of Aftab, who informed her of her daughter’s death and even her mobile phone number through which she received the information.

According to the FIR, close-circuit television camera footage went viral on social media. Still, the complainant failed to identify the person and his ID, through which the footage went viral. He added that Ms. Shah belonged to a respectable family and could not even imagine committing such an offense.

He said that police had misapplied sections as they had no relevance to the facts of the case and had been incorporated on the sweet will of a high police official. On Aug 30, the civil judge and judicial magistrate of Sobho Dero ordered the inclusion of ATA provisions on an application of the investigating officer without applying judicial mind, he said.

Source: Dawn