Six more protesters granted bail in CBC case

An additional district and sessions judge granted three-day pre-arrest bail on Friday to six citizens implicated in an FIR, lodged at the complaint of the Cantonment Board Clifton, against residents protesting outside the CBC office.

The court accepted the pre-arrest bail pleas of the six citizens against a surety of Rs20,000 each, and restricted the police from arresting them till September 7.

The six citizens - Ahmed Awais, Muhammad Ammar, Muhammad Saad, Salman Aziz, Syed Fahad Iftikhar and Kunwar Aftab - were also directed by the court to corporate with police investigation into the matter.

On Wednesday, the Darakhshan police registered a case against 22 named and other unidentified protesters who had gathered outside the CBC office to protest the authorities' lack of action regarding drainage and provision of facilities following the torrential rain last week.

The FIR, registered on behalf of the office security supervisor, accuses the nominated protesters of vandalism, scuffling with the police and issuing threats to CBC officials. Seven of those nominated have been granted bail so far.

Doctor's 'suicide' case

Meanwhile, the South judicial magistrate disposed of a plea seeking permission to exhume the grave of a female doctor, who died of suicide on August 18 in Defence Housing Authority, on technical grounds.

The court remarked that the grave was located in Mirpurkhas, which does not fall under the South district court's jurisdiction.

The magistrate disposed of the investigation police's plea and directed them to file it before the relevant court.

The police have launched an investigation on the allegations of the deceased's father, who maintains that the female doctor was drugged and raped, and inconsistencies observed between evidence at the crime scene and the initial post-mortem report. The accused in the case are out on bail.

The police later sent a letter to the Mirpurkhas sessions court, seeking permission for the exhumation and redoing of the post-mortem.

According to the police, the letter states that the medical report prepared by Dr Irfan at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was allegedly flawed. It goes on to say that the deceased's father had raised questions about the investigation and therefore, the exhumation and another post-mortem were necessary.

They added that the Mirpurkhas police had also been approached and a medico-legal team would exhume the grave and perform the post-mortem under a judicial magistrate's supervision.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2020.