By Staff Reporter
KARACHI: A Karachi court on Saturday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of the business partner of murdered entrepreneur Mir Raza Ali, ordering him to join the ongoing investigation and restraining him from leaving the city while police continue their inquiry into one of the most closely watched cases the city has seen in years.
Muhammad Ahmed, who ran a shop alongside the 25-year-old owner of the dessert brand Wafflix, appeared before the Additional District and Sessions Court East, where his counsel, Khalid Mumtaz, argued that his client was being harassed by police despite cooperating fully with investigators. Ahmed had first secured interim bail on Thursday against a surety of Rs100,000, with the court issuing notices to the investigating officer and the prosecution ahead of Saturday’s hearing.
Ali was allegedly abducted from his home in PECHS in the early hours of July 28 after telling his mother he was stepping out for ten minutes. He never returned. His body was recovered the following day from bushes near a wedding hall in Gulistan-e-Jauhar, bearing a gunshot wound. What began as uncertainty over whether he had taken his own life has since hardened, after a second post-mortem following his exhumation, into his family’s long-held conviction that he was murdered.
Mumtaz told the court his client had been summoned not to a police station but to the crime scene itself, at around 1am, and alleged he had been harassed by the previous investigating officer. Justice for the harassment claim came under immediate challenge from Jibran Nasir, the lawyer representing Ali’s father, who rejected the allegation outright and told the court that police had simply called in witnesses as part of a routine process. Around 35 people had been questioned for hours at a stretch, he said, adding pointedly that “my client has been murdered” and warning that granting bail now would open the door for others connected to the case to seek the same relief.
The judge pressed Ahmed’s counsel on why his client was seeking bail at all, given that he had not been formally nominated as an accused. “Think about whether you want to pursue this bail or withdraw it,” the court told him, making clear that Ahmed would be required to join the investigation regardless of his bail status. Ahmed, present in person as directed, told the court he had reported to the police station every time he was summoned. The court extended his interim bail until August 24 and ordered him not to leave Karachi for the duration of the probe.
Outside the courtroom, Nasir told reporters the family had shared with investigators the names of everyone Ali had met in the period before his death, Ahmed’s among them, purely to help police pursue every possible lead. “The parents have not used the word ‘suspect’ for any individual,” he said, describing the case as a “blind murder” and insisting the family had no wish to level accusations without evidence to support them. He said Ali’s father had himself demanded a transparent investigation, adding: “Why is the killer being protected? The whole city is asking this question.” He thanked the young people of Karachi who he said had kept up protests over the case “day and night.”
The hearing in the bail matter came on the same day a separate proceeding unfolded before the Judicial Magistrate East in the main criminal case, registered at Ferozabad police station under FIR No. 795/2026 on charges of abduction, murder and destruction of evidence. Investigating officer Siraj Lashari told the magistrate the inquiry remained unfinished and sought additional time to complete it. The court granted the extension, directing that a full progress report, along with the outstanding medical examination findings, be produced at the next hearing, also fixed for August 24.
Investigators said Ali’s mobile phone and smartwatch, recovered from the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency, are being sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency in Lahore for independent examination, a step taken after the family raised concerns about having the devices analysed solely by the NCCIA. Police are separately attempting to access Ali’s SIM data through biometric verification using his mother’s identity documents. Officials said further evidence had been recovered from the crime scene but declined to disclose specifics.
The composition of the investigation itself has shifted repeatedly since Ali’s death. The inquiry committee has now grown from seven to nine members, with the addition of the SHO of Shah Latif Town police station and a deputy superintendent of police. Nasir said he had confidence in the newly constituted team, noting that its findings so far were consistent with the available medical evidence and were being pursued in line with standard operating procedures. The family wants investigators to prioritise accurate geo-fencing analysis, secure relevant CCTV footage and complete all outstanding forensic work, he said.
He was considerably less forgiving of the team that first handled the case, accusing it of serious procedural failures in the initial stages of the inquiry. A crime scene unit had failed to reach the site in time, he alleged, and the scene itself had been set alight, potentially compromising the recovery of DNA evidence — lapses that were separately acknowledged by the Sindh Inspector General of Police as the case came under mounting public scrutiny.
“Our focus is on identifying the killers,” Nasir said, adding that the family wanted whoever was responsible arrested alive and brought before the courts, so that the case could proceed through due legal process rather than end in another contested account of what happened.
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