Karachi police have obtained four years of cryptocurrency trading records of Mir Raza Ali through the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA), according to a police official.
The official, speaking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, said the records showed Ali had been involved in cryptocurrency “futures trading” on the Binance platform for the past four years.
The development comes days after Ali’s friend Abdul Hasem told a judicial commission probing the circumstances surrounding his death that he and Ali had traded cryptocurrencies together.
Hasem said he had stopped trading after suffering losses, while Ali had continued and was doing well in the business.
The single-member judicial commission, headed by Sindh High Court Justice Omar Sial, has been conducting regular hearings into the case.
Last month, police had sought assistance from the NCCIA to retrieve Ali’s digital records and WhatsApp account details to determine whether they contained any suspicious information.
Ali’s body was recovered on July 29, a day after he went missing on July 28. His death has since become the subject of controversy, with his family accusing police of attempting to conceal facts after investigators initially pursued a suicide angle.
Days after the body was recovered, Karachi Police Surgeon Dr Summaiya Syed said the post-mortem findings had raised several questions, noting that some observations in the report did not appear to correspond with photographs available in the case.
On August 6, a Karachi court accepted an application filed by Ali’s father and ordered the exhumation of his body. The court also directed the formation of a medico-legal board to conduct a second autopsy.
The Sindh health department initially constituted an eight-member medical board headed by Dr Syed. However, the board was reconstituted in the early hours of August 7 under an order issued by the department’s director general, with its membership changed while Dr Syed remained convener.
Ali’s family rejected the newly constituted board, resulting in the postponement of the planned exhumation. The family’s counsel, Nasir, subsequently accused the authorities of attempting to suppress facts surrounding the death.
The Sindh government later restored the original medical board, following which Ali’s body was exhumed on August 8.
On August 9, the Sindh inspector general of police’s office notified the reconstitution of the investigation team probing Ali’s death. Karachi Additional IG Azad Khan also transferred the investigation from Ferozabad Police Station to Zaman Town Police Station.
The case had initially been registered at Ferozabad Police Station under kidnapping charges. Following the reconstitution of the investigation team, a murder charge was added to the first information report (FIR).
The Sindh government subsequently decided to seek the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the case. The move was deferred the following day after Ali’s family said it had not made such a demand and expressed confidence in the newly formed investigation team.
On August 19, Ali’s parents, Mir Hussain and Mariam Hussain, wrote to Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, seeking his direct supervision of the murder investigation. They also called for an inquiry into the previous investigation team and sought the immediate suspension of officers involved.
The provincial government acknowledged the request and, on August 23, announced the formation of a judicial commission to determine whether the investigation was being conducted impartially and to examine the circumstances surrounding Ali’s death.
Ali’s family later challenged the government’s decision before the Sindh High Court, seeking the formation of an independent, multi-agency joint investigation team comprising officers who had not previously been involved in the case.
On September 2, the SHC dismissed the petition, observing that the formation of such a body was the prerogative of the government.
Meanwhile, the final report of Ali’s second post-mortem concluded that he had died from a gunshot wound to the back.
The report stated that the death resulted from cardiac rupture caused by a perforating firearm injury to the chest. It noted that the entry wound was located on the posterior thorax, or back, while the exit wound was on the front of the chest.
The report concluded that the findings were inconsistent with suicide as the manner of death.
