Lawyer accused of staging abduction

The complainant said she was taken to Mailsi and tortured

OKARA:

A female lawyer has been accused of staging her kidnapping to implicate her opponents in the case.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had also taken notice of the kidnapping of the lawyer.

An inquiry committee of the Punjab Bar Council reportedly termed the abduction of the woman as fabricated. The investigation reportedly revealed that Mehmood alias Babi had played a role in staging the incident. The lawyer herself went with a taxi driver named Khadim to Mailsi and later claimed that he had been abducted.

District Police Officer Omar Saeed Malik said a video went viral on social media 15 days ago in which Advocate Nasreen Irshad, a member of Depalpur Bar Association, stated that she was abducted by unknown people on August 15 and taken to Mailsi, where she was tortured. Lawyers observed a strike in courts across the province on the call of Punjab Bar Council after the video of their female colleague went viral.

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Punjab Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shoaib Dastagir took notice of the incident and sought a report, after which SP Investigation Shamsul Haq Durrani and DPO Omar Malik reached out to the female lawyer. A team comprising SP Durrani, the DSP Depalpur and DSP legal was formed for arresting the accused of the abduction. During the police investigation, it was revealed that the woman lawyer is not only a plaintiff in several cases but also the accused in others. The prime minister and Punjab chief minister also sought a report from the RPO Sahiwal and the DPO. The investigation team found that Nasreen Irshad is a plaintiff in seven cases, accused in two and a witness in six cases.

The woman was taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital where a large number of dignitaries, government officials and representatives of lawyers’ organisations visited her. Police also recorded a statement of the lawyer before a magistrate. After the video of the female lawyer went viral, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Shehzad Akbar also commented in a tweet regarding the kidnapping.

Punjab Bar Council also formed a six-member inquiry committee consisting of senior lawyers. After the inquiry report of the team, the allegations were found false. According to the lawyers’ inquiry report, the case of abduction of the woman was declared as false and fabricated. All the allegations regarding the kidnapping have also been declared false. According to the inquiry report, the advocate had created the story to implicate her opponents in the case. The lawyer had also allegedly registered such cases earlier. The investigation team has sent its report to the chairman of Punjab Bar Council.

According to DPO Omar Saeed Malik, the complete report of the police investigation was also sent to the IGP, who had submitted it to the chief minister and prime minister.

The DPO said the case was investigated on scientific grounds. He said no evidence of the abduction of the woman had been found in the CCTV footage of the day of the incident as alleged by the complainant. She came out of the court on a motorcycle with Mehmood and got into a cab, the investigators said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 6^th, 2020.