A court on Monday gave the investigating officer three days’ time to file an interim charge sheet against a woman SUV driver in a case pertaining to last month’s deadly Karsaz accident.
On August 19, a speeding luxury car, driven by the suspect, rammed into three motorcycles and another car before overturning on Karsaz Road, killing Imran Arif and his daughter Amna and injuring three others.
The driver has been booked in two separate cases—one lodged under rash driving and manslaughter charges, while the other under Section 11 (drinking liable to tazir) of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order (PEHO), 1979 after her medical report confirmed that she was under the influence of methamphetamine, also known as ice or crystal meth.
On Monday, the main case came up for hearing before Judicial Magistrate (East) Mohammad Raza Ansari as the investigating officer, Rehan Ahmed, the complainant’s lawyer and defence counsel turned up in the court. The suspect was not brought to the court after her lawyer moved an application requesting the magistrate to procure her attendance via video link, which was granted.
The IO stated that Section I00 (driving while under the influence of drink or drugs) of the Provincial Motor Vehicles Ordinance 1965 had also been added to the case. He said he needed more time to complete the investigation and submit interim charge sheet. He informed the court that letters had been sent to various authorities in connection with the probe, but their response had not been received yet.
He said a letter had been written to the UK High Commission in Islamabad for verification of the woman’s licence, adding that CCTV footage of the accident had been sent to a Lahore lab for forensic analysis, a report of which was still awaited. The IO, therefore, requested the magistrate to grant two weeks’ time to complete the probe and submit the charge sheet. However, the magistrate directed the police officer to submit the investigation report on September 5. Meanwhile, the IO of the drug case informed the court that the second case was lodged against the woman after her medico-legal certificate confirmed that she had methamphetamine (ice) in her system at the time of the accident. He said the suspect was arrested and interrogated in this case on Saturday, and requested the court to issue her production order.
The magistrate allowed the IO’s plea and ordered that she be produced in the drug case on September 7. Initially, an FIR was lodged at the Bahadurabad police station under sections 320 (punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving), 337-G (punishment for hurt by rash or negligent driving), 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Later, the IO added Section 322 (manslaughter) of the PPC to the case. On Friday, a fresh case was lodged under Section 11 (drinking liable to tazir) of the Prohibition (Enforcement of Hadd) Order (PEHO), 1979.
