Sulaiman Lashari murder: SHC seeks prosecutor general, IG’s comments

The petitioner had filed an application against alleged tampering with evidence

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Friday sought the provincial prosecutor general's (PG) comments on the petition submitted by Salman Abro, the prime suspect in the Sulaiman Lashari murder case, against the alleged tampering with evidence by the police investigator and medical surgeons.

Abro, who is charged with shooting his 17-year-old classmate after an altercation, had approached the SHC against the police investigator and medical surgeons. Currently confined at the Karachi Central Jail, he filed his petition through lawyer Abdul Razzak and named the PG, the police IG, investigating officer (IO) Inspector Muhammad Mobeen and surgeons Dr Nadia Haroon and Dr Nadia Dawood, both of whom work at the Dr Ziauddin Hospital, as respondents.

According to the police, the suspect, who is the son of a senior superintendent of police, went to Lashari's residence in Defence with five police guards on May 8 and killed his classmate and wounded his guard.

The petitioner said that he had filed an application under Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code with the Anti-Terrorism Court-III (ATC-III) to take action against Mobeen for misconduct. He said that the IO had submitted a charge-sheet to the trial court along with his medical report, wherein his age was mentioned as 18 years.

Abro's lawyer alleged that the ATC kept the matter pending for five months before dismissing the plea with the observation that "at this stage of the trial, the IO cannot be said to be guilty of misconduct or default." He informed the two judges that the IO tampered with the evidence regarding the date of birth of the petitioner, declaring him to be an adult. "Due to this tampering, the suspect is treated as an adult by the court and was sent to the Karachi Central Jail instead of the juvenile jail," he argued.

The lawyer submitted that the IO had violated Section 12 of the Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000, as well as the fundamental rights of the petitioner as guaranteed under Articles 4, 25 and 10-A of the Constitution.

The court was pleaded to summon the doctors to explain the tampering on the petitioner's discharge slip, dated May 8. It was also requested to order the trial court's recorded evidence of the IO to see how he mentioned the petitioner's age on the charge-sheet. A direction was also sought for the ATC-III to hold an inquiry against the IO under Sections 167, 182 and 464 of the Pakistan Penal Code. A division bench comprising Justices Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Naimatullah Phulpoto issued notices to the PG, the IG, the IO, the medical surgeons and the complainant to file their comments by December 24.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2014.