Police have booked a Pakistan Peoples Party women wing leader and Mithi police station SHO in case of custodial killing.
One and a half day after a suspected thief was allegedly killed in the police custody, family of the slain person allowed the police to shift the body for postmortem after the authorities booked a political figure and policemen in the murder FIR.
The body of 27 years old Bhagchand Meghwadh alias Bhagio, who was arrested by Mithi police station in Tharparkar district on March 21, was shifted to the government hospital.
The police registered FIR on complaint of Jai Ram Meghwadh, uncle, nominating the ladies wing president of Pakistan Peoples Party Tharparkar chapter, Sumitra Manjiani, and SHO Mithi police station Muhammad Soomar Mangrio. Aachar Meghwadh and Mohan Meghwadh, relatives of Sumitra, have also been booked. However, no one among those booked was arrested till the evening.
The family of slain Meghwadh had staged a sit-in protest outside the police station to force the police to charge cops and local influential persons. They pelted the police with stones and the latter baton charged on the protesters but they did not budge.
The protest ended after negotiations between the protesters and MPA Faqir Sher Muhammad Bilalani, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Nawaz Soho and the acting SSP Tharparkar in which the latter assured registration of FIR and arrest of the accused. The SSP also put under suspension the SHO and other policemen who were on duty at the time of the incident.
The complainant claimed that the slain young man was subjected to torture for five days in the police station after he was apprehended on complaint of Aachar. "We kept visiting the police station but we weren't allowed to meet him even for once."
Meghwadh was blamed for stealing gold and other items of Aachar from his residence in Bypass Colony. The SHO, meanwhile, claimed while talking to the local media that the young man died due to cardiac arrest and that he was kept in detention only for one day. The family complained that the police have failed to produce any criminal record of Meghwadh.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 27th, 2022.
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