Investigators say chemical, DNA reports ‘inconclusive’ in Mir Raza Ali murder case

Investigators probing the murder of young business owner Mir Raza Ali have received the chemical examiner’s report and one DNA report, but said the findings were not yet “conclusive” enough to determine the direction of the investigation, Dawn has learnt. Owner of eatery Wafflix, Ali had gone missing on July 28, and his body was found a day later with a gunshot wound in bushes in Karachi’s Gulistan-i-Jauhar. Investigators are also awaiting the findings of other samples and the police surgeon’s final report in light of the laboratory findings. The DNA report confirmed the identity of the deceased, ruling out theories circulating on social media that someone else might have been killed. Informed sources told Dawn that the chemical analysis of samples taken during the first post-mortem examination had revealed three key findings. First, it confirmed the presence of gunshot residue on the back of the perforation in the deceased’s shirt, indicating an entry wound. Second, traces of acid were found on his shirt. Third, the chemical examiner’s report detected bupivacaine, an anaesthetic and painkiller, in his blood. The sources said several samples had been collected during the exhumation of the body, carried out around 12 days after his death on a court’s order following an application by the family. Meanwhile, the sources said the investigation team formed by Sindh IGP Javed Odho and headed by DIG Crime and Investigation Amir Farooqi had decided to conduct geofencing in areas surrounding the crime scene to detect the possible movements of pedestrians and people travelling in cars or on motorcycles. The team would also obtain the call data record of the victim’s mobile phone, they said. Moreover, on the request of the family’s lawyer, Jibran Nasir, two new members — DSP Siraj Lashari of Hyderabad and Karachi South police inspector Mohammed Ali — had been included in the investigation team. They also said the chemical examiner’s report detected traces of acid on the victim’s shirt, but there were no acid burns on his body. Similarly, the presence of painkillers in his body did not suggest that he had been administered an anaesthetic before being killed. The sources said investigators were still “confused” about the entry and exit wounds caused by the gunshot, which had generated considerable debate. According to them, the first post-mortem report showed a bullet wound on the chest from the front, while the second report suggested that he had been shot from behind. They said there was a 38mm wound on the chest, along with burn marks on the shirt, while the wound on the back was 7mm in size and showed no signs of burns on the shirt. “We are not challenging anything at this stage, but there is still confusion among investigators,” a source familiar with the investigation said. The sources further added that the victim’s kitchen was located in the same area where his body was found, but it had been closed at the time of his death. Meanwhile, secretary of the investigation team and SSP RRF Mohammed Ali Raza, along with other investigators, visited the crime scene. The complainant, the victim’s father Mir Husain, and the family’s lawyer, Jibran Nasir, also joined them. ‘Neither depressed nor deprived’ Speaking to the media, Jibran Nasir alleged that the deceased’s only digital footprint, his smartwatch, had remained in the possession of SSP SIU Samiullah Soomro for eight days without any memo, which he said amounted to manipulation of evidence. “Ali had deleted applications from his phone; his only digital footprint was his smartwatch. However, SSP Soomro kept it with himself for eight days and distributed information extracted from it to the media,” he said. “Isn’t this criminal conduct by SSP Soomro?” The lawyer alleged that police had taken the smartwatch from the family a couple of days after the killing but had not prepared any memo for it, which he said demonstrated the officers’ lack of sincerity. Jibran said Ali had remained missing for around 12 hours after he was last seen and had allegedly been subjected to torture during that period before his death. “After finding acid on his clothes, we fear that he may have been forced to consume acid,” the lawyer said. “He was neither depressed nor deprived. He was martyred and oppressed,” he said, warning the police and government against treating the death as a suicide. He criticised the Sindh government for including East SSP Zubair Nazir Sheikh in the initial investigation team, alleging that the Sindh High Court had ordered an inquiry against the officer over a Rs500 million extortion allegation. “The Sindh government included such people in the investigation team,” he said. Nasir also alleged that another officer on the initial team, SP Usman Sadozai, had been in Azad Jammu and Kashmir for the past two weeks and had not returned to Karachi. He questioned how the officer had been attending meetings of the investigative committee. Nasir further criticised the Gulistan-i-Jauhar police for failing to notice the acid and other evidence and initially portraying the death as a suicide. He alleged that efforts were being made to protect someone he described as “powerful, brutal and oppressive”. The lawyer alleged that Ali’s killers were professionals who had tried to conceal his identity by pouring acid on his face and thumbs and setting the crime scene on fire. He said it was possible that Rs300 million had been debited from Ali’s account by someone to portray it as a financial loss and create the impression that he had committed suicide after suffering a heavy loss. Nasir said he had met the new investigation team along with the deceased’s family and had also visited the crime scene on Tuesday.