Sarah Inam murder: Shahnawaz Amir's mother Sameena Shah arrested

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad Police on Wednesday arrested Sameena Shah, mother of Shahnawaz Amir — the main accused in the Sarah Inam murder case.

The law enforcement agency arrested Shah after Additional Sessions Judge Sohail Sheikh dismissed her bail plea.

Police Station Shehzad Town’s personnel arrested the accused outside the courtroom after she appeared before the judge with her lawyer. She will be shifted to the women’s police station. 

On October 1, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had extended the interim pre-arrest bail of Sameena in the murder case of the Canadian national.

The bail was extended after the court on September 26 had accepted the pre-arrest bail plea of Sameena against a surety bond of Rs50,000 and directed her to join the probe.

Shahnawaz allegedly killed his wife Sarah at home after a row over a family issue on September 23.

Shahnawaz — who was detained by the police from a farmhouse in Islamabad's Chak Shahzad area for being a suspect in his wife's murder — confessed to committing the crime and said that he "thought" his spouse was having an affair with someone else. The couple was married for just three months.

Police registered a first information report (FIR) on the complaint of Station House Officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan last month under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

The FIR mentioned that the suspect's mother, Sameena, called the police on Friday (September 23) to inform them that her son, Shahnawaz, had killed his wife with a dumbbell.

According to the FIR, Sameena told the police that her son was in the house and had hidden the body of his wife. Following this, the police raided the house.

In the complaint, the police said that Shahnawaz had locked himself inside his room and when the personnel broke inside, there were blood spots on his hands and clothes.

Once the police got hold of Shahnawaz, he, according to the FIR, confessed to hitting his wife repeatedly with a dumbbell during an argument and then later hiding the Canadian national's body in the bathtub.

The "murder weapon", the FIR quoted Shahnawaz as saying, was hidden under his bed. Police, after examining the dumbbell, reportedly found blood and hair on it. They later sent it for forensics.