ISLAMABAD (Daily Point) — A District and Sessions Court in Islamabad handed down a death sentence to Shahnawaz Amir and imposed a fine of Rs1 million in the murder case of Sarah Inam. The verdict, delivered by Sessions Judge Nasir Javaid Rana, was reserved on December 9.
Shahnawaz’s mother, Samina Shah, however, was acquitted by the court due to a lack of evidence. Samina Shah had been indicted in December of the previous year and was named as a co-accused in the case.
The legal proceedings, spanning over a year, involved three different judges, namely Additional Sessions Judge Islamabad Muhammad Atta Rabbani and Azam Khan, who also presided over the hearings.
Sarah Inam, a 37-year-old economist, allegedly fell victim to domestic violence, with her husband Shahnawaz Amir, the son of journalist Ayaz Amir, accused of murdering her with dumbbells in Islamabad’s Chak Shahzad area on September 23, 2022.
Shahnawaz was apprehended by the police at a farmhouse in Islamabad’s Chak Shahzad area, where he was a suspect in his wife’s murder. He later confessed to the crime, claiming suspicions of his spouse having an affair. The couple had been married for only three months.
The following day, a trial court issued arrest warrants for Ayaz Amir and his former wife Sameena Shah, named as suspects by Sarah’s family. While Ayaz Amir was arrested, Sameena Shah obtained pre-arrest bail.
In the police report, Section 109 (punishment for abetment) of the Pakistan Penal Code was added at the request of Sarah’s uncles, Colonel (retd) Ikram and Zia-ur-Rahim, who accused Ayaz and his former wife of complicity in their daughter-in-law’s murder, alleging that Sameena was residing at the farmhouse where the incident occurred.
However, on September 27, an Islamabad court cleared Ayaz Amir of any involvement in the case, citing a lack of evidence against him in Sarah’s murder.
In a separate case on February 6, Shahnawaz was indicted for the illegal possession of a Kalashnikov firearm. He pleaded not guilty, but on November 27, the court granted him the benefit of the doubt and acquitted him, citing the prosecution’s failure to substantiate its charges and deeming the evidence “doubtful.”
It’s worth noting that a separate case related to the recovery of a Kalashnikov from the suspect had been registered by the police. Last month, the prime suspect rejected all evidence presented by the prosecution as “baseless.”
