Major developments in the death of 20-year-old Sania Zehra, a mother of two, whose death took social media by storm, have unveiled crucial details of her demise.
Azma Bokhari, Punjab’s Information Minister, informed the media on Monday that Sania’s death was not a result of suicide. It was in fact a homicide.
Sania’s father, Syed Asad Abbas Shah, had already claimed in the FIR that his daughter’s husband had killed her.
The provincial minister asserted that the husband is a suspect along with his mother, as all evidence points towards their role in Zehra’s killing.
“No evidence of suicide has been found in the Sania Zehra case. The mother-in-law and husband had put a noose around the girl’s neck together,” she said during a press conference.
The revelations have surfaced two days after the Punjab government constituted a six-member committee to oversee the probe into the murder case. The committee was authorised to find discrepancies in the FIR’s contents and the victim’s autopsy report.
Azma, along with Chairperson of the Women Protection Authority Hina Pervaiz Butt, updated the media that the wounds on the girl’s shoulder and neck were not due to the noose used for suicide. “Forensic lab traces such cases. Forensics have found evidence against Sania’s mother-in-law and husband,” she added.
Hina Butt stressed that she knew it was not a suicide case after seeing photographs of the crime scene. “Evidence later revealed that the girl was murdered and hanged. Mother-in-law and husband polygraph test positive,” Butt said.
Forensic test report
Punjab Forensic Science Agency also submitted all its test reports stating that the forensics found no evidence of suicide.
“All the tests and investigations show that it is not a case of suicide. Sania Zehra was killed on July 9, and her [murder] was presented as a suicide,” the submitted report read.
Zehra’s neck was not swollen or elongated due to the noose. “The DNA of Sania’s husband and mother-in-law matched with the dupatta used as the noose,” as per the forensic report.
The noose around Zehra’s neck did not cause her death, and the scar on the neck and shoulder was not because of the dupatta, the report added.
“The DNA of the sample found from Sania’s nail was also matched with that of her husband,” it read.
Earlier, the reports came out allegedly confirming that Sania hanged herself, implying that she committed suicide. The reports also asserted that she was not pregnant.
Since the Punjab government established the suicide, The Current talked to Azma Bukhari, and she confirmed that Sania’s pregnancy could not be confirmed, blaming it on the forged post-mortem report. She said that Sania’s uterus was not opened, and the medical officer got changed at the last minute, which raised concerns about this aspect being compromised in the post-mortem investigation.
Azma admitted that even though the parents say that she was pregnant, the government can’t confirm because the post-mortem report was influenced.
The case so far
On July 9, 2024, Zehra was found hanging from a ceiling fan in her home. Her father, Syed Asad Abbas Shah, reported the death to the police, accusing Zehra’s husband and in-laws of murder, claiming Sania showed signs of torture, including a broken jaw and bruised ribs.
However, the victim’s husband, Ali Raza fled the scene and was initially not held accountable.
The case attracted significant social media ire, prompting Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz to instruct officials to investigate.
A joint investigation team was formed, and on July 13, the body was exhumed for a forensic report which confirmed asphyxia from hanging as the cause of death.
Husband Ali Raza was later arrested on July 20, facing charges related to forgery and dishonesty as he hid the truth of his first marriage from Sania and her family.
Despite claiming the death was a suicide following a domestic argument, Raza was arrested again after a press conference where he shared his version of the story and framed it as a case of suicide.
Read all the details of the case: Sania Zehra case: Hanging confirmed, pregnancy dismissed
