SUKKUR: The Sindh High Court Sukkur circuit bench comprising Justices Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi and Shah Nawaz Tariq on Tuesday rejected a police request to retain the Sukkur DIG-led investigation team to probe a triple murder case. It ordered transfer of the investigation to Inspector Ghulam Ali Jumani, currently posted at the DIG`s office, as desired by the complainant, Kareemat Khatoon Shaikh.

The bench was seized with the petition filed by Advocate Manzoor Ahmed Ansari on behalf of Ms Shaikh.

The petitioner submitted in court that her son, Pervez Shaikh, had contracted a freewill marriage with Parveen Shaikh, in August against the consent of the woman`s family members.

The petitioner alleged that Parveen`s father Ali Gul Shaikh and other close relatives took this as a matter of honour and got Pervez, as well as two witnesses to the marriage (Nikah) kidnapped in a raid on their Shikarpur house and later killed by a team of Sukkur police in a fake encounter. She further alleged that her husband, Bukhshal, and the other son, Ali Sher, who had also been kidnapped along with Parveen in the same raid, had been kept in illegal custody by the police team that later handed over Parveen to her parents.

The bench had earlier summoned Sukkur DIG Kamran Fazal Siddiqi and Khairpur SSP Pir Mohammed Shah but they did not appear in court on Monday. The petitioner`s counsel expressed his distrust in the two officers and prayed to court to assign the investigation to Inspector Jumani. The police insisted that the present probe team be retained.

The bench ordered transfer of the investigation to Inspector Jumani and adjourned the hearing to Oct 21.

On an earlier court order, a case was registered against two SHOs and their four subordinates as well as Ali Gul Shaikh and his some relatives in the kidnapping and encounter case. Parveen had been recovered and sent to Darul Aman while the SHOs had gone into hiding, the court was told.