Karachi court acquits Karsaz accident suspect in murder case

• Court approves bail after settlement reached between two parties.
• Female driver already secured bail in the murder case on Sept 6.
• Heirs of the Karsaz road accident victims had pardoned suspect.

KARACHI: A district and sessions court on Thursday acquitted a female driver in a murder case registered against her for "killing" two people in an accident on Karsaz Road after a "reconciliation agreement" between the families was submitted in court.

On August 19, a young woman and an elderly man were killed when the suspect’s luxury vehicle crashed into multiple vehicles near the Pakistan Maritime Museum in Karachi.

Those killed in the accident were identified as daughter and father, 26-year-old Aamna Arif and 60-year-old Imran Arif.

The sessions court approved the female driver’s bail after a settlement was reached between the two parties.  

The suspect has already secured bail in the murder case on September 6 after the victims' family pardoned her. 

Last month, heirs of the Karsaz road accident victims submitted an affidavit in the court, saying they had no objection to granting the suspect bail in the case as the “mishap was not intentional”.

“Matters have been settled between us and we have pardoned the suspect. We have forgiven for Allah’s sake, who’s the Most Kind and Most Merciful,” read the affidavit.

On August 19, the woman suspect was detained and booked under rash driving and manslaughter charges after her speeding luxury vehicle killed a man and his daughter and injured two others on Karsaz Road.

Later, a separate case was lodged against her 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.

However, a judicial magistrate and a sessions court separately rejected the suspect bail pleas in the drug case.

Following the dismissal of bail, the female driver approached the Sindh High Court, which granted her bail after hearing arguments from both sides.

In the detailed verdict, the SHC bench stated: “Even otherwise a glance at the chemical report reveals that the applicant’s blood sample found no narcotic, sedative, psychoactive toxic or any other foreign compound/element in the given sample. The urine sample given by the applicant found that Methamphetamine (Ice) i.e. narcotic was detected in the sample, hence there appears to be a contradiction between the two reports (blood and urine) which makes this a case of further inquiry.”

It further said that the suspect is a “lady and has three children all of whom are school going out of whom one is a young female and as such they need the support of their mother who has already been in jail for the last 6 weeks”.