The murder of a doctor, whose direction of investigation changed overnight

This is a series based on the memoirs of ex-police inspector Sagheer Vito, brought to you every Tuesday.

About two months had passed since I was posted in the rural police station of Budhla Sunnat in Multan district.

Budhla Sunnat was not a big police station. Being a rural area, most of the people’s employment in Budhla Sunnat depended on farming and livestock rearing, so although a government hospital could not be built there, there was definitely an animal hospital.

Dr. Ashraf Khalji, head of Animal Hospital, was a very good-tempered and God-fearing person. His hometown was Borewala, but after getting a job, he was staying in Budhla Sanat for the last 14 years.

I have always heard the people of Budhla Sunnah praising Dr. Ashraf Khilji. He was always in the forefront in serving the people of Buddhala Sunnah.

I wanted to meet him one day, but it was not in my imagination that I would meet him in such an unusual situation.

Ramadan had started. Like other institutions, the routines of the police had also changed, but the duty hours had increased to a considerable extent.

It was probably the third dawn. I was busy preparing for prayer after Suhoor when my phone rang. I picked up the phone and on the other side it was Chaudhry Nazir Gujjar, the numberedar of Budhla Sunnat. He said in a panicked voice, ‘Mian Sahib, Dr. Ashraf Khilji’s house has been robbed and Dr. Ashraf Khilji has been seriously injured by the robbers’ firing.’

Nazir Namdar also informed that the family of Dr. Ashraf Khalji is preparing to take him to a private clinic in Budhla Sanat.

I asked Nazir Namdar to stop them from doing so as this is a firearm case and such cases are taken only to government hospitals. I myself immediately left for the occasion without wasting a moment.

After a few minutes, I was present at the house of Dr. Ashraf Khalji. It was a two-room government house with a small kitchen attached to the outside, with bulb lights in the courtyard. While the door of the house was open.

Dr. Ashraf Khalji had been living in the same quarter for the past 14 years with his wife, who was a lecturer in physical education at Girls’ College in Khanewal. He had no children but did not remarry despite family pressure.

About five years ago, the doctor kept the daughter (niece) of his wife’s only brother with him on his wife’s insistence. Bushra was a student of FA and studying in Khanewal Girls College and used to come to Khanewal daily with her paternal aunt.

Three people were staying in the house including niece. According to the initial reports, at the time of the incident, the niece was coming from the kitchen to the room with cups of tea in a tray, when suddenly she heard her scream, then the sound of the tray falling was heard, after which Dr. Khalji ran out of the room.

As soon as Dr. Khalji came out, the niece ran inside the room. According to Dr. Khalji’s wife, the two armed robbers, whose faces were covered with cloths, opened fire as soon as Dr. Sahib challenged them, and as soon as Dr. Sahib fell to the ground, they fled through the door.

This was not the time to go into details. The doctor’s condition was critical. I called the ambulance as I left the house, which arrived soon after. I sent the doctor to Nishtar Hospital and left for Nishtar Hospital with an ambulance in a government vehicle.

Suddenly a thought flashed through my mind.

I stopped the ambulance and got out of the official vehicle and sat right next to Dr. Khalji’s stretcher in the back of the ambulance. It was in my mind that maybe Muzarub could tell something or give some clue that would help in reaching the accused.

The ambulance was on its way to Nishtar Hospital as fast as possible. I asked the doctor, ‘Doctor, do you know the robbers? Do you suspect anyone?’

The doctor raised two fingers with a hand gesture. At the same time, his breath started to catch.

He recited Kalma Tayyaba loudly and his neck fell to one side.

I immediately checked his pulse. Their heartbeats had stopped. Dr. Sahib’s spirit had flown from the elemental cage.

In no time we reached the emergency room of Nishtar Hospital. Soon the doctors of Nishtar Hospital also confirmed the death.

I left sub-inspector Iftikhar with the dead body of the doctor after giving instructions to conduct the post-mortem and left for the crime scene.

My real work began now. I had to conduct a detailed examination of the crime scene, collect circumstantial evidence, besides recording the statements of the victim’s wife and the wife’s niece separately.

From the crime scene, I found blood-stained soil and empty shells of fired bullets, which I took into possession.

I registered an FIR under 396 Pakistan Penal Code for the crime of robbery-murder during robbery on the statement of Dr. Sahib’s widow. After that, I reported all the incidents to my superior officers, took guidance from them and assured them that I will reach the accused very soon.

I wanted to get to the bottom of the incident and its motives very quickly so that I could bring the real culprits to book.

There were many things in this incident which I could not digest.

If the accused had entered the house with the intention of robbery, then this time was very inappropriate because not only the doctor and his family were awake at the time of suhoor, but all the people of the area were awake at that time. And the announcements of Suhore time go on and on, the food shops are open and the streets are bustling.

The second suspicious thing was the report of the incident. The incident was reported to Nazir Numdar not by the family but by Abdullah Chowkidar.

According to Abdullah Chowkidar, he saw two boys leaving the doctor’s house and riding a motorcycle. As soon as Chowkidar Abdullah called out to them, they fled the motorcycle and fled towards Kakar Hatta Khanewal Road.

When the watchman looked inside the open door of Dr. Khalji’s house, the doctor was moaning in pain and no one was near him.

As soon as the watchman entered, the two women started crying. I also asked the widow and niece of the deceased Dr. Khalji. There were some contradictions in them.

At four o’clock in the morning, when the alleged bandits entered the house and opened fire on the doctor, who was the first person the family informed?

The widow of the doctor said that she called her brother in Faisalabad while her niece said that the phone had gone dead.

When we checked the PTCL phone records, a call was made to Faisalabad after the incident, while the surprising thing was that the telephone wire was cut from the ceiling of the quarter and a telephone was also there.

I took fingerprints from this cutter and personally seized it. Due to suspicious circumstances, I ordered the two women not to leave the station without informing me as their presence is indispensable for the completion of the investigation.

The next morning I was informed that the brother of Dr. Khalji’s widow had decided to trace with sniffer dogs and that money had been paid in this regard.

It was even more surprising to me. My experience in the past with tracking dogs has not been great. Because I found that they tend to confuse my investigation rather than solve it.

I put a trusted ASI on duty to monitor the situation and keep me informed from time to time.

By afternoon, Dr. Ashraf’s brother reached Budhla Sanat from Borewala.

Around 3:00 PM I was informed by my ASI that the detective company had released two dogs from the crime scene which had gone and sat outside the house of Abdullah Chowkidar.

Barely ten minutes must have passed after receiving this information that the widow of the deceased Dr. Ashraf Khalji and the brother of the doctor came to the local police station with dignitaries. Our accused are Abdullah Chowkidar and his 18-year-old son Arshad.

As the plaintiff was the widow of Dr. Sue, I asked her to write a supplementary statement so that the accused named by her could be arrested and investigated.

After recording the full statement of the plaintiff, I sent a team to arrest Abdullah Chowkidar and his son Arshad. But before the team arrived, Abdullah Chowkidar and his son Arshad turned themselves in to the police station.

Abdullah Chowkidar said, “Sir, when the sniffer dogs sat outside our house, both of us, father and son, were present in the house and have appeared before you to prove our innocence.”

Abdullah the watchman growled and said, ‘Sir, they are trying to trap me and my son. He also said that if our crime or our role in this crime is proved till the Day of Resurrection, then you are forgiven for our blood

Abdullah’s words touched my heart. The sixth sense is very important in the work of a police officer. But this sixth sense is also trained, and works in the light of past experiences. As many cases as I had investigated so far, as many accused as I had prosecuted, all that I had learned during training, all that data was present in the conscious as well as in the subconscious and the sixth sense was telling me by utilizing all of them. That the watchman is being framed to change the direction of the investigation of the case.

But obviously I had to fulfill all the requirements to reach the final decision. I recorded the statements of Abdullah Chowkidar and his son Arshad and asked them to remain in the police station for investigation. During this time, I talked to the officers above and kept the arrest of both accused pending.

During this time the watchman and his son Arshad had collected secret and declarative information. Both father and son’s routines were confirmed in the last 24 hours. They also supported my sixth sense that they were both innocent.

I took the two brothers of the deceased Dr. Khalji into confidence. He apprised them of the events that had transpired since the incident and his concerns as a police officer.

Meanwhile, another information was received that Dr. Sahib’s widow and his niece had gone to Faisalabad from Multan. This unbalanced and unpredictable behavior of the two women reinforced my concerns, although I had instructed them to stay there until the investigation was completed.

It was only two days after this incident that the transfer of Dr. Sahib’s household goods was also started.

Meanwhile, I also received an order from the High Court ordering the police not to harass the police on the writ petition of the two women.

Although such a writ petition is usually filed on behalf of the accused, it was highly unusual for the plaintiff to come forward.

In the meantime, Dr. Sahib’s brothers informed me that the plaintiff has filed an application in the bank to transfer Dr. Sahib’s bank account, which contains a significant amount, to her name.

Contradiction in statements, nomination of Abdullah Chowkidar and his son in the case by sniffer dogs, attempted immediate transfer of goods, Bushra Bibi’s departure from Budhla Sunnat despite being restrained, police in High Court without any apparent reason. A ‘harassment writ’ against him, an attempt to transfer a bank account to his name, were the events that clearly set the direction of the investigation.

I was making all these concerns part of the police file through appendices (police diary).

After a week, the two brothers of the doctor came to me at the police station and cried and said that your fears are correct, my sister-in-law and her niece are involved in this incident.

When I asked for details from both of them, they told that our sister-in-law (plaintiff case) has submitted a claim in State Life Insurance for recovery of one and a half crore rupees regarding Dr. Khalji’s insurance policy without informing us.

He said, “We don’t want anything. Our sister-in-law and her niece are involved in our brother’s murder, so instead of them, we should be made a plaintiff.”

I called the plaintiff and put all my concerns in the form of questions to her in writing.

He could not answer even a single question and on the contrary applied for a change of investigation the next day.

Until that time, in the light of all the evidence, Dr. Ashraf Khilji, on the statement of Asghar, the elder brother of the deceased, filed a case against the plaintiff and the niece.

The former plaintiff and the present accused were surprising me at every step. This time, using political influence, they transferred the investigation of the case to the Crime Branch, and removed the case from my purview and the case file went out of my hands.

Investigators changed, but obviously I worked on the case, with all the records in the evidence file. When the investigating officers of the crime branch saw the file, the painstaking investigation and questions raised in the case forced them to charge the two women in the murder case.

As per the latest reports, the niece is in jail in the case of Dr. Ashraf Khilji and is serving the punishment for her actions, while the widow of Dr. Ashraf Khilji has been released on bail.

It has been 15 years since the incident, there have been several court appearances but till now the case revolves around the questions raised by me. Those questions are:

• Who opened the door from the inside at the time of the murder?
• Why was the murder not immediately reported to the police?
• If it was a robbery, why didn’t the robbers take anything with them?
• Why did the murder happen during the busy time of Suhri?
• Why were sniffer dogs called for immediately?
• Why did the widow and niece leave the city despite the instruction?
• Why was a writ of harassment obtained even though no one had harassed them?
• What was the rush to withdraw money from the bank? The widow should not have been a financial problem as she was a lecturer herself.
• Why was the Chief Investigating Officer, i.e. me, changed?

To my satisfaction, with the change of plea, the purpose for which Dr. Ashraf Khalji was sidelined was not achieved, and the two women were unable to reap any financial benefit.

According to my experience, in serious incidents like murder, the blame goes to the beneficiary in 99%, if not always, cases. The whistle definitely comes out.

Note: Names have been changed at some places, but the details are as per the actual event.