LAHORE: A district and sessions court on Monday extended the remand of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mufakhar Adeel who is the prime suspect in the murder case of his friend Advocate Shahbaz Tatla.
During the hearing, when Adeel was inquired about his counsel, he said he has not hired a lawyer as of yet.
Police officials sought further remand to properly probe the matter. The court also handed over the co-accused, Asad Bhatti, to the police on five-day physical remand.
Earlier on Mar 11, police officials contended that the investigation will be carried out to ascertain how the former AAG was murdered, what the murder weapon was and where the body was hidden.
The defense did not contest the physical remand, (given by the court on Mar 11), adding that it is the right of the police to investigate the matter.
Addressing the media, the defense counsel advocate Aftab Bajwa said: “We will cooperate with the police in the process of investigation, but it is very clear that Mufakhar was arrested in doubt”.
Police had also arrested co-accused Asad Bhatti on Feb 15 and upon whose direction the police recovered important evidence.
Officials recovered laptops of the SSP Adeel and Tatla after the latter went missing on Feb 14.
On Feb 13, the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) police recorded statements of five persons including three women who had visited the house where the incident occurred. Later, Asad Bhatti confessed to the alleged murder of Tatla.
On Feb 25, the forensic teams dug out the courtyard of the house and collected the evidence.
On Feb 20, police met with legal heirs of deceased Tatla registered an FIR in Naseerabad police. Tatla’s brother registered the report claiming his brother was missing.
Earlier in March, the SSP was arrested after he returned to Pakistan due to the fear of coronavirus spreading in Iran.
Sources said security agencies detained SSP Adeel from the Pakistan-Iran border and handed him over to Lahore police.
In his initial statement, Adeel conceded that he had planned the murder of Tatla because he was threatening to assault his wife after having raped his former spouse in 2012.
