The husband in the Sania Zehra case was arrested on Saturday after Multan police registered a second case against the suspect in the death of the 20-year-old found hanging in her bedroom last week.
Zehra — who was a mother of two — was found dead in her room on July 9, hanging from a ceiling fan. Her father had claimed that her sudden death was not a suicide but an alleged murder. He stated that his daughter’s in-laws were disguising the alleged murder as a suicide, contrary to the crime scene.
The first information report (FIR) was registered at the New Multan police station on his complaint under Sections 148 (rioting armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 302 (intentional murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
Police exhumed the body on July 13 after a court had ordered the exhumation and collection of post-mortem samples for a forensic report to investigate the alleged murder. The autopsy report had stated that the ligature mark on her neck was consistent with hanging and the cause of death was asphyxia due to hanging.
Police spokesperson Fayyaz Ahmed told Dawn.com that the suspect was arrested in another case registered on the victim’s father’s complaint. Ahmed said the suspect had secured bail and was released in the first FIR against him before today’s arrest after a media talk at the press club.
The FIR, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, invoked PPC Sections 468 (forgery), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 471 (using forged document as genuine), 494 (marrying again during lifetime of spouse) and 495 (concealment of former marriage from person with whom subsequent marriage is contracted).
The FIR said that the suspect declared himself single in the marriage certificate while he was already married to another woman and had two daughters with her.
It said that the victim’s family knowingly concealed the truth from the complainant, the victim’s father. It added that the purpose of marrying his daughter was to claim her property.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media today at the press club before his arrest, the husband claimed that his wife had committed suicide and refuted the allegations that he was after the victim’s property.
He said one-sided allegations were raised against him, alleging that his in-laws were blackmailing him. He said that both of his wives were living together for the past year, adding that he was prepared for investigations into the case.
He questioned the police’s method of investigation as he claimed that the officials had trashed his sister’s house.
