Too young to be true: Three orphaned minors get pre-arrest bail

Judge slams police for producing children before court in property case

LAHORE: Another example of the inefficiency of the Punjab police emerged when three orphaned minors, along with their relatives, reached the district and sessions court to get pre-arrest bail orders. The children were accused of preparing forged documents of a property and threatening their rivals with dire consequences.

However, additional district and sessions judge Shahid Baig expressing his gloom over the situation and remarked that people were losing confidence in the police due to its poor performance. The judge issued notices to the complainant and summoned a police record by November 25.

Shahdra police, on the complaint of Muhammad Asif, registered an FIR against more than six people, including three minors, under Sections 420 and 506 of the PPC. In the FIR, the complainant stated he had purchased a double story house measuring three kanals at the price of Rs.3,000,000 in 2013. He added the property had been bought from one Muhammad Akram.



The complainant added that when he requested Akram to register the property in his name, the latter started delaying the matter. Subsequently, the petitioner moved a civil court to get a stay order over the property.

Later, he learnt that Akram, Shoaib, Ali Ahmed, Haseen and others prepared forged documents of the property. He further stated in the FIR that when he questioned the suspects over the forged documents, they allegedly threatened to kill him if he continued with his pursuit.

They accused reportedly claimed to have strong ties with absconders and added they would get the complainant murdered. He prayed in the FIR that the bogus documents be recovered from the suspects and they be given remarkable punishment.

On Saturday, three orphaned brothers named Ali Ahmed, 5, Haseeb, 5, and Shoaib Hassan, 12, reached the district and sessions court and seemed out of their depth in a courtroom. They filed their pre-arrest bails application which said that these children were innocent and had nothing to do with the case. They added the police, on the orders of influential people, implicated them in a false case to humiliate and blackmail them.



The petitioners told the court that there was an unexplained delay of four years to lodge the FIR. They added the delay was not plausibly explained by prosecution and the time used to file the FIR spoke volumes about the case’s authenticity.

The petitioners were bonafide purchasers of the property mentioned in the FIR through the registered sale deed dated November 22, 2016. The application stated that the alleged agreement to sell in favor of respondent Shaukat Ali did not create any right, title or interest under the law.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2017.