Missing persons' case: Adiala jailers who fled courtroom surrender

Supreme Court grants them interim bail in case relating to the disappearance of 11 inmates from Adiala Jail.

ISLAMABAD: Two sacked jailers of Adiala Prison, who had escaped from police custody on February 2 following cancellation of their bail, surrendered before the Supreme Court on Thursday.

The four-judge bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry granted them interim bail after hearing their application. They are alleged to have abetted the disappearance of 11 acquitted prisoners from Rawalpindi’s central jail in June last year.

Former superintendent of Adiala Jail Saeedullah Gondal and deputy superintendent Khalid Bashir, whose bails were cancelled by the Lahore High Court on February 2, had escaped from police custody.

The two jailers appeared before the court on Thursday. Their lawyer argued before the court that both officials had spent 37 days in jail due to their alleged involvement in the disappearance of 11 acquitted prisoners from the Adiala Jail.

He said that the session court had granted them bail but Rawalpindi bench of the Lahore High Court later on cancelled it. He requested the court to grant them bail as they had surrendered themselves before the court.

The court accepted interim bails of both the officials and directed them to submit the surety bonds of Rs100,000 each to additional registrar Lahore High Court. The court adjourned the hearing for confirmation of their bail till February 25.

The two police officers on February 2 escaped from police custody as they had been arrested in the courtroom after the cancellation of their bail plea in the 11 missing persons’ case by Justice Ijaz Ahmad of LHC’s Rawalpindi bench.

Police said that four officials including an ASI and three constables have been suspended and investigations opened. The LHC was moved by the relatives of 11 men that went missing from Adiala Jail after acquittal for the cancellation of bail granted to the sacked police officers in the abduction case. They contended that the benefit was given (to them) in haste.

The two jail officials were granted bail by an Additional District and Sessions Judge on December 3, saying the allegations of abduction were a bailable offence and the prosecution could not put forth any motive behind the abduction of the 11 men by the jail officials.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 11^th, 2011.