SHC grants bail to suspended jail officials in UTPs escape case

Bench directs them to submit Rs1 million surety each to court nazim

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) granted on Thursday bail to former jail officials arrested over the escape of two suspected militants from Central Jail, Karachi.

A two-judge bench, headed by Justice Muhammad Iqbal Kalhoro, directed them to furnish Rs1 million surety each to the satisfaction of the SHC's nazir.

Meanwhile, the judges directed the interior ministry secretary to place names of former superintendent Faheem Anwar Memon and former assistant superintendent Abdul Rehman Shaikh on the Exit Control List (ECL) immediately.

The officials were suspended after two prisoners, Shaikh Mohammad Mumtaz alias Firaun alias Sher Khan and Mohammad Ahmed Khan alias Munna, who were said to be associated with the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, had escaped from the prison on June 13, 2017.



The jail officials were booked in a case for their alleged negligence and the escape of undertrial prisoners under Sections 223 (escape from confinement or custody negligently suffered by public servant), 224 (resistance or obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension), 225 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person), 225-A (omission to apprehend, or sufferance of escape, on part of public servant in cases not otherwise provided for) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the New Town police station.

The Counter-Terrorism Department had later also included Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act in the FIR.

The suspended jail officials' lawyers had argued that their clients were arrested on June 14, 2017, while the law enforcement agencies had conducted a raid in the penitentiary on June 17.



They had further argued that various articles, including television sets, mobile phones and memory cards, were recovered during the raid, but they were still not being shown to anyone.

It was alleged that the applicants were illegally booked in three different FIRs despite the fact that the investigation officer had removed their names in the final charge sheet.