A woman driver involved in a fatal accident that claimed the lives of two persons earlier this week was sent in jail on a 14-day judicial remand by a Karachi city court on Wednesday. On Monday night, on the city’s Karsaz Road, Natasha Danish’s speeding Toyota Land Cruiser collided with three motorcyclists and another vehicle before flipping. In the collision, three others were injured in addition to Imran Arif, sixty, and his daughter Amna, twenty-two.
The motorist was then taken into custody and charged with manslaughter. She was receiving mental health care at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) while in jail, according to the police, who declined to present the suspect in court on Tuesday. The suspect was placed in police custody for one day by the court, notwithstanding the investigation officer’s (IO) request for a 14-day police remand. The suspect was brought before a District East judicial magistrate today under the court’s orders, and the police once more sought her there on a 14-day remand.
After being released from JPMC’s mental health unit, the police brought the suspect before the judge. Imtiaz Arif, the case’s complainant, attended the hearing accompanied by Barrister Aziz Ghouri, his attorney. A wrecked Honda Civic belonging to one of the accident victims also showed up in court. The suspect’s attorney argued at the hearing that her client may be released on bond due to the charges against her.
IO Rehan Ahmed then told the court that the case had been amended to include a charge under section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code (the penalty for qatl-bis-sabab), which he claimed was an offense for which bail was not available. The victim’s attorney then demanded that the “kind of drug” that the suspect was reportedly using at the time of the accident be looked into.
She replied when the suspect was asked by the court what her husband’s name was. She said no when questioned about whether or not she had been tortured by the cops. Subsequently, the court placed the suspect on judicial remand for a period of 14 days and instructed the IO to prepare a charge sheet for the upcoming hearing.
The FIR
Imtiaz Arif, whose brother and niece perished in the accident, submitted the first information report (FIR) at 11 p.m. yesterday at the Bahadurabad police station. Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 337-G (penalty for hurt by rash or negligent driving), 427 (mischief causing damage to the sum of fifty rupees), and section 320 (punishment for qatl-i-khata by rash or negligent driving) of the Pakistan Penal Code were invoked in the FIR.
The complaint states that Arif was notified of his brother Imran Arif’s accident at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Monday while he and his daughter Amna Arif were riding a motorcycle. The complainant learned that his brother’s motorcycle had been struck from behind by the defendant, who was operating a Toyota Land Cruiser when he arrived at the JPMC. The FIR added that Imran and his daughter suffered several injuries and subsequently died, along with “Abdussalam, son of Mohammad Ishaq, who was riding on the motorcycle was also injured.”
