A Karachi court has allowed the exhumation of Wafflix owner Mir Raza Ali’s body on Thursday, days after a dispute emerged between the Karachi police surgeon and investigators over gaps in the postmortem report.
According to reports, Judicial Magistrate Hameedullah issued the order on an application filed by Ali’s father, Mir Hussain Ali Khan, who asked for a fresh and comprehensive medico-legal examination.
The court directed the police surgeon and Sindh health secretary to form a medico-legal board and ordered the Ferozabad SHO to arrange the exhumation along with the investigating officer.
Ali’s counsel, Jibran Nasir, told the court that no X-ray had been conducted and the cause of death remained undetermined. The prosecutor raised no objection to the exhumation, telling the court, “This is a matter involving a human life.”
Raza Ali, 25, the owner of eatery Wafflix, went missing on July 28. His body was found the next day with a gunshot wound in bushes near Shahi Qila Ground in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.
Police say he had been facing financial difficulties and had asked friends for money the night he died, and that he left home in a taxi booked through an app before being dropped near the location where his body was found.
His family believes he was kidnapped, tortured and murdered, while investigators have been building a case around the possibility of suicide.
Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed added to the controversy this week, saying that the reported entry wound, bullet trajectory and exit wound in the postmortem did not match, and that gunshot residue on the hands, typically tested for in suspected suicides, was never checked.
