SHC orders registration of FIR against former SSP for ‘half-frying’ doctor

Directs formation of JIT under AIG Waliullah Dal, orders Sindh govt to compensate victim

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has ordered the registration of a case against former Hyderabad SSP Irfan Baloch and other police officials for 'half-frying' a citizen, Dr Deepak Raj, in 2015. The court has also ordered the formation of a Joint Investigation Team to probe the incident, besides directing the Sindh government to compensate the victim.

Half-fry and full-fry are terms used by the police to refer to the condition of suspects they come across during encounters. The former is used for a person who is injured and the latter when the person is killed during the raid.

On Wednesday, a two-member bench, comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Shamsuddin Abbasi, was hearing the plea filed by Dr Deepak Raj's wife, Srimat Suneeta. The petitioner's counsel, Barrister Haq Nawaz Talpur, argued that the attack on Dr Raj was an example of sheer brutality as he was left to die after being shot multiple times. "It is no less than a miracle that Dr Raj is alive today," said the lawyer. "A happy family was devastated by the police and now they are living in misery," he added.



The case

Dr Raj ran a private clinic in Chakra Goth, Korangi. On April 16, 2015, he had gone to Hyderabad to visit relatives, when police officials shot him at a tea shop in Hyderabad's Kali Morri area. "I had gone to meet some relatives in Hyderabad and had just stopped at the tea shop for a cup of tea," Dr Raj had told The Express Tribune a month after the incident. The policemen caught hold of him at the shop and shot at his legs, he recalled, adding that they kept calling him 'Shareef Panhwar'.

"They took me to the police station and kept telling me to confess to crimes as I kept bleeding," said Raj. "They wanted me to say that I am Shareef Panhwar. I cried and told them that I am not even a Muslim and that my name is Deepak," Dr Raj narrated his ordeal to The Express Tribune.

In all, Dr Raj was half-fried with 15 shots - 12 bullets to his left leg, two to his right leg and a single shot to his right arm. His left leg had to be amputated while his other leg and arm were also in a bad shape.

When The Express Tribune met him at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre in May 2015, his left arm - the only limb not injured - was chained to the side of the bed. The medical report noted his name as Shareef, son of Abdullah.

According to Dr Raj, he was shot at around 5pm but he was taken to a hospital at 9pm. "They called me half-fried," he said. "It would have been better that they had 'full-fried' me," Dr Raj had lamented at the time.

By that time, Irfan Baloch, who is now the Larkana Police DIG, had confirmed to The Express Tribune that the man had been identified as Deepak. He had insisted, however, that the encounter was genuine. The police killed two of his aides and injured one, while two others escaped, he had told The Express Tribune.

"He introduced himself as Shareef Panhwar," Baloch had told The Express Tribune, adding that his brother, Suneel, who was in jail, had also introduced himself as Muhammad Ali when he was arrested.

JIT formed

On Wednesday, four years after the incident, the SHC ordered the formation of a JIT, headed by Hyderabad Police chief AIG Waliullah Dal, to investigate the incident. The JIT must include two DSPs and officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB), the court-ordered.



The bench also directed the chief secretary to pay Rs50,000 monthly to Dr Raf for expenses and disburse the compensation announced by the chief minister. "If Deepak has to be sent abroad for treatment, he should be sent there on government expense,'' the bench directed. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2019.