Noor Mukadam murder case
-Court sends Zahir Jaffer’s parents, two other suspects to Adiala Jail
-Noor Mukadam asked me to bring Rs700,000 to Zahir Jaffer’s house: driver
-Zahir’s fingerprints taken to seek criminal record abroad
By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: Zahir Jaffer, the main suspect in the murder, is under police custody, with the court granting a three-day extension in his remand earlier Wednesday. Zahir will now be produced before the court on July 31.
His parents, Zakir Jaffer and Asmat Adamjee are on a 14-day judicial remand and were ordered to be sent to Adiala Jail yesterday by a Sessions Court in Islamabad. Besides the parents, two domestic workers, a cook and a guard, identified as Iftikhar and Jameel, are only on a 14-day judicial remand.
Noor, 27, was murdered in on 20th July, in the city’s F-7 area. She is the daughter of Shaukat Mukadam, who served as Pakistan’s ambassador to South Korea and Kazakhstan.
Capital Cops arrested Zahir on the night of July 20 from his house where, according to Noor’s parents, he killed her with a sharp instrument and severed her head. The gruesome incident sparked a nationwide campaign seeking justice for her, with #JusticeforNoor becoming a top trend on Twitter.
A sessions court in Islamabad on Tuesday sent to jail the parents of Zahir Jaffer and two other suspects on a 14-day judicial remand for their alleged involvement in the murder of Noor Mukadam, the daughter of a former Pakistani ambassador. The suspects were presented before Judicial Magistrate Shoaib Akhtar’s court today. At the outset of the hearing, the police requested the judge for a 14-day judicial remand of the suspects. After hearing the request, the judge asked the plaintiffs whether they would like to present their arguments in the case.
The lawyers responded by saying that they will not present their arguments if the judge will send the suspects to jail on remand. The court, on hearing this, approved the remand and the suspects — Zakir Jaffer, Asmat Adamjee, Iftikhar and Jameel — were ordered to be sent to Adiala Jail. However, before the hearing could be dismissed, Raja Rizwan Abbasi, the lawyer for Zakir Jaffer and his wife, asked the court that he be allowed to meet his clients. The court accepted the request of the lawyer and the suspects were once again brought inside the court where the counsel met his clients.
After speaking to his clients, Abbasi appealed to the court to discharge Zakir Jaffer and his wife from the case. At this, Judge Akhtar remarked that the court has already issued orders for judicial remand and cannot entertain the appeal.
The lawyer then asked the judge to include his appeal in the written orders and the judge accepted the request. The court subsequently issued the orders for all four suspects to be sent to jail for 14 days and ordered the police to present them in the next hearing on August 10.
Following the verdict, Zahir’s parents turned in a request for release on bail to the court. The court sent a notice to the police, informing them of the request, and also asking for a complete record of the case. Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Sohail will decide on the matter of bail on July 30.
Meanwhile, the Mukadam family lawyer stated that Zahir Jaffer’s counsel has not taken a plea that the suspect has a mental disability. Shah Khawar, the lawyer, said that till Monday, three court hearings of the case have been held, and not once had Jaffer’s defense counsel taken the insanity plea. “If this plea is taken later by his lawyer then that will be an afterthought,†Shah Khawar said. “As of now this defense only exists on social media. Noor Mukadam’s driver says she called him from accused Zahir Jaffer’s house and told him to bring Rs700,000. She asked him not to tell her parents, says Khalil, Noor’s driver.
On being asked if Noor was kidnapped for ransom, police said case is under investigation. Noor Mukadam asked her driver to arrange Rs700,000 and bring it to the house of Zahir Jaffer, the main accused in her murder.
Khalil said, however, that he could only arrange Rs300,000. Khalil, Noor’s driver, told Geo News that Noor called him and said that she immediately needed Rs700,000 and that her parents should not find out about it. According to the driver, he told Noor that he could not manage to bring Rs700,000. He said Noor told him it was important that he bring it and asked him to take it from a friend or arrange it from his acquaintances. Khalil said he managed to collect Rs300,000 and on Monday afternoon, July 19, he reached Zahir Jaffer’s house at the address given by Noor.
“When I called Noor Mukadam, she said she can’t come out and to hand over the money to the cook,” Khalil said. He then handed the money over to the domestic worker. According to Khalil, he has identified the cook of accused Zahir in front of the police. The driver also revealed that when Noor called him for the first time, she told him to tell her parents that she was going to Lahore.
When Khalil went inside the house to tell her parents about Lahore, Noor’s mother was already talking about the same thing with her husband. Noor’s father was questioning why Noor was going to Lahore when it was Eid the next day, the driver said.
He added that he understood that Noor had called her mother about Lahore already and so he left without saying anything. According to the investigating sources, Noor was in touch with her mother. Noor also spoke to her mother over the phone the day she was murdered (Tuesday, July 20) at 10am.
When contacted the police about the driver’s statement and asked about a possible kidnapping and ransom, they replied that the case is under investigation.
Earlier last week, the SSP Investigation told the media in Islamabad that Zahir Jaffer was sound of mind and “in his senses†when arrested at the scene of the crime. When asked about the investigation into the case, Shah Khawar said that the police probe was moving in the right direction. In a case like this there are no witnesses, except the suspect himself, he added, “so forensic analysis of evidence is very important here.”
In a parallel development, Zahir’s fingerprints were taken today to seek his criminal record in the US and UK. The police’s fingerprint experts sent the suspect’s prints to the American and British embassies, the sources said. The sources said that Zahir’s criminal history will be made part of the case. The sources said that in 2016, Zahir Jaffer was jailed for three months and subsequently deported from the UK.
