The Zain murder case took yet another turn on Thursday when the police registered a case against the complainant Sohail Afzal for retracting from his earlier statements recorded with the police.
The complainant Afzal, uncle of 16-year-old orphan Zain, withdrew his earlier statement recorded with the police and declined to identify the primary accused in the case, Mustafa Kanju, in front of the court.
The prosecution then filed an application with the court and notified that the complainant has retracted from his earlier statement. It asked the court to allow the police to register a case against Afzal under Section 213 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), to which the court agreed.
Police then registered a First Information Report (FIR) 398/15 in Mustafababad police station under Section 213 on the complaint of ASI Mehbob Alam.
The complainant Afzal will now be presented before the court on Friday.
Meanwhile, the judge at Anti-Terrorism Court 1, Mohammad Qasim, has also asked for the media footage to be presented before the court, in which Afzal is shown giving a press conference where he named Mustafa Kanju as the main suspect accused of killing his nephew Zain.
Earlier in June, the ATC had indicted Mustafa Kanju and six others accused in the murder case of Zain.
Mustafa Kanju, son of former minister of foreign affairs Siddique Kanju, had confessed to firing the fatal shots that ended Zain’s life. He had said that Zain was not the target of the fire, nor did he intend to kill Zain or anyone else.
Kanju was earlier sent on a judicial remand to allow the police to collect evidence pertaining to the investigation in order to frame charges against Kanju.
He was arrested after a case was registered against him under Section 7-ATA and Section 302 of the PPC.
Enraged after his luxury car accidentally hit the vehicle of a woman in Cavalry Ground area of Punjab’s provincial capital on April 1, Kanju had resorted to gunfire. Zain was hit and died on the spot and Husnain was critically injured after they were hit by gunfire.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had taken notice of the incident, ordered the arrest of the suspect and announced Rs0.5m for the family of the deceased. He also assured them of the provision of justice.
