KARACHI: A witness and two journalists appeared before the judicial commission probing the death of young entrepreneur Mir Raza on Tuesday, with proceedings focusing on suspicious vehicles seen near the place where his body was found and the circumstances surrounding his death.
The key witness, Muhammad Riaz, who works as a watchman at a house near the location where Mir Raza’s body was found in Gulistan-e-Johar, told the commission that he saw two vehicles in the area during the early hours of July 29.
Riaz said that he was on the rooftop smoking at around 3:24am or 3:28am when he saw a white Suzuki Alto and another vehicle, identified as a Toyota Axio.
When asked by the commission how many people he had seen, Riaz said there was one man in one vehicle who abused him while trying to move a vehicle up.
He told the commission that he had not seen the two vehicles in the area before that night.
Riaz also said a motorcycle passed through the area around the same time.
Advocate Jibran Nasir, counsel for Mir Raza’s family, asked the witness whether police had visited his house.
Riaz said he had heard from some boys that police had visited and made inquiries.
Nasir told the commission that the family had provided police with the registration number of a suspicious vehicle, which was allegedly registered in the name of a person identified as Tariq. He said the vehicle, bearing registration number BSK-099, had not had its tax paid for two years.
The commission then heard presentations from journalists Babar Saleem and Sualat Jafri regarding their findings about suspicious vehicles and Mir Raza’s movements before his death.
Saleem told the commission that CCTV footage appeared to show that Mir Raza was being surveilled. He said a vehicle appeared to follow Mir Raza’s car from Gulistan-e-Johar and later stopped outside the guest house where Mir Raza was found.
Jafri also said it appeared that Mir Raza’s vehicle was being followed from Gulistan-e-Johar and that the vehicle seen following him stopped outside the guest house.
Nasir told the commission that, according to the police, the people in the vehicle had gone to the guest house to resolve a dispute.
Saleem alleged that the police had deliberately mishandled aspects of the case and said the mobile phone had been locked while investigators were attempting to access it.
Jafri told the commission that a suspicious Alto had been seen moving around the area on July 28 and 29.
Crypto trading examined
The journalists also presented information about Mir Raza’s cryptocurrency trading.
According to Jafri, Mir Raza’s cryptocurrency trading account was created in 2021 and transactions worth around Rs80 million were recorded over a year.
Saleem said that Mir Raza’s cryptocurrency purchases were higher than his sales, adding that he remained profitable after a year of trading.
Jafri, however, said Mir Raza had suffered an overall loss of around Rs30 million during the year.
Nasir said Mir Raza’s family had approached the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) several times but had not been informed of such details.
He also told the commission that there had been incidents in Karachi involving the short-term kidnapping of people engaged in cryptocurrency trading.
Nasir said that Mir Raza had invested around Rs9 million in cryptocurrency during the final three months of his life.
Saleem said that investigative agencies were still unwilling to acknowledge their mistakes in the case.
Justice Omar Sial, who heads the commission, responded that “a big man admits his mistake”.
The commission adjourned the hearing after recording the witness’s statement and hearing the journalists’ presentations.
The commission is scheduled to record the statements of Investigation Officer DSP Siraj Lashari and CPLC representative Kashif on Wednesday.
The judicial commission had earlier inspected the crime scene before recording the investigating officer’s statement and specifically sought a briefing from journalists on suspicious vehicles on October 6.
The commission’s term has been extended until October 15 to allow it to complete its proceedings.
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