Court dismisses bail plea of maid accused of poisoning elderly couple

A model court has dismissed the bail application of a housemaid in a case pertaining to allegedly poisoning an elderly couple, which resulted in the husband’s death.

Sakina alias Shamim has been arrested on charges of poisoning Muhammad Mushtaq Ahmed, 75, and his wife Jamal Agha, 68, at their residence in Gulistan-e-Jauhar in May. Additional Sessions Judge Azizur Rehman Junejo of the Model Criminal Trial Court (East) dismissed an application filed by the woman seeking post-arrest bail.

“Prima facie reasonable grounds do exist to believe that the applicant/accused is involved in the commission of alleged offence,” he observed, ruling that she failed to make out a case for grant of bail.

The judge said that the accused worked as a maid in the couple’s house and visited them the day they fell sick and were moved to hospital. “She was the person who lastly attended the deceased and victim; therefore, the applicant/accused has to explain the circumstances in which the deceased died, but she failed.

On the contrary she narrated different stories in her statements, which clearly shows malafide on the part of the accused,” noted the judge, adding that all the witnesses, including Ms Agha, fully supported the prosecution case in their statements.

According to state prosecutor Muhammad Ashraf Bhatti, complainant Ishtiaq Ahmed, who lived in the UK, lodged an FIR stating that on May 7, his elder brother informed him over phone that their parents were seriously ill and had been shifted to Jinnah Hospital. He flew to Pakistan and on inquiry came to know that they were under treatment at the OMI hospital. He rushed there and found them to be on ventilator in an unconscious condition. Citing their medical reports, the complainant said that his parents were given some poisonous drugs. His father died during treatment.

The defence counsel, however, contended that there was no direct evidence against the accused, who had left the house after finishing her work in the morning while the incident took place in the evening, requesting the judge to grant her post-arrest bail.

The complainant’s lawyer argued that though the FIR was initially lodged against unknown persons, but during investigation, the accused was arrested and the victims’ mobile phone, jewellery and other articles were recovered from her home.

He said she was the last person who visited them before they fell ill, adding that alleged offences fell within prohibitory clause and entailed capital punishment, requesting the court to dismiss the bail plea.

The case has been lodged at the Sharea Faisal police station under sections 302 (murder), 337-J (causing hurt by mean of a poison), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.