Legal hiccups delaying Adeel-Tatla case probe

Police engage team of legal experts to devise future line of action

LAHORE: Lahore Police is caught between a rock and a hard place on the future legal prospects of the case of two suspected accomplices into custody and the prime suspect at large in Adeel-Tatla case.

Police have engaged a team of legal experts to devise the future line of action, a senior police officer shared with The Express Tribune on Friday.

The team also included friends of Shahbaz Tatla, a former assistant advocate general of Punjab.

Police were caught in a conundrum with the questions of the possibility of allegations of saving the skin of their department fellow ie SSP Mufakhar Adeel. It also faced trouble about deciding the fate of the suspected accomplices in police custody Asad Bhatti, a mutual friend of Adeel and Tatla and the cop’s employee Arfan.

Interestingly, Lahore Police high-ups have categorically denied the custody of Asad Bhatti before the Lahore High Court (LHC). However, a senior police officer revealed to The Express Tribune that both were in police custody and the investigations in the case so far revolved around the confessions and the statements by the two men.

The officer said they (police) could not let them go as circumstantial pieces of evidence suggested they were the co-accused in the case.

On the other hand, the investigators were also unable to decide in the presence of legal lacunas that could arise if they challaned them at this stage when SSP Mufakhar Adeel was out police’s sight and reach.

About a month had passed Police could not find any trace of the cop who went reportedly missing under suspicious circumstances on February 11. Police also failed to track of Shahbaz Tatla.

A senior police officer told The Express Tribune police had found sufficient grounds to claim that Tatla had been murdered. He also claimed that police had also found forensic evidence (DNA) of Tatla related to the modus operandi of the crime (decomposing the body after putting into acid). However, the claim could not be verified or cross-checked independently.

The officer said the legal team was considering different case laws of the similar nature. He added that there were a large number of cases where the murder took place and the body could not be found. There were instances when the body was dumped into a canal after the murder and it could not be recovered by police. He added that they were analysing the case laws where the body could not be recovered and convictions still occurred. These were largely based on supporting evidence.

The legal team was analyzing and assisting Lahore police with the circumstantial and supporting evidence in the current case.

It is worth noting that criminal proceedings and investigations in Pakistan largely depended on recovery. In the case of murder, recovery of body and weapon besides other pieces of evidence was important. Secondly, confession only did not hold much value before the court of law. This was the largest hangover, Lahore Police faced in the case.

Background:

Family of former assistant advocate general Punjab Shahbaz Tatla had registered an FIR before Naseerabad police that he had allegedly been abducted on February 7. On February 11, his close friend SSP Mufakhar Adeel went missing under suspicious circumstances. He reportedly had been appearing before police along with the family of Tatla to help ‘resolve’ the abduction case. Later, Adeel’s family reported that he went is going missing was reported by his family on February 12.

During the police investigations, it was revealed that Adeel and Tatla were involved in suspicious activities. It also came forth that they had developed differences most probably over a woman.

Adeel rented a house in Faisal Town to host parties where Tatla along with others was also reportedly invited. It was also revealed during police investigations that the cop reportedly decomposed Tatla’s body in a drum of acid after murdering him.

Police arrested Asad Bhatti, a mutual friend of Adeel and Tatla and the SSP’s employee Arfan whose revelations reportedly substantiated Tatla’s brutal murder.

On record police version

On Thursday, the Investigations Wing of Lahore Police held a press conference led by CCPO Zulfiqar Hameed, DIG Investigations Inam Waheed, SSP Investigations Zeeshan Asghar, SP CIA and other officers. However, they showed restraint from sharing details of the investigations in this regard.

CCPO Zulfiqar Hameed, while commenting on the issue, said police were working on completion of legal formalities in the case. He added that when police felt the details were mature to be shared with the media, they would surely go for it.

DIG Investigations Inam Waheed when asked to share investigations so far he replied that they could not share any information that could impede the process of investigations.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2020.