A local court on Friday dismissed a petition seeking the registration of a case against the SHO of Kohsar Police Station for conducting a raid at the house of former Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed.
Additional District and Session Judge Tahir Abbas Sapra dismissed the petition after hearing arguments from the two sides. At the outset of the hearing, the police submitted its report to the court following its orders. Sheikh Rashid's lawyer adopted the stance that police had raided the house of his client and tortured his servants.
However, the police prayed to the judge to terminate the petition and said that PTI workers held protests at the time of the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan. The complainant police official had mentioned the name of Sheikh Rashid, Faisal Javed and others in the case for inciting the workers.
The report said that the police had raided the house of Sheikh Rashid after obtaining search warrants but the accused was not found there. The police recovered a Kalashnikov from a vehicle in the house of the accused. However, the police could not get information about the ownership of the vehicles recovered from the house. The report also said that the police had neither misbehaved nor tortured the servants of the house during the raid.
In a three pages judgment, the court said that as per the allegation of Sheikh Rasheed, the police raided his house on May 31, and tortured his servants. The petition also alleged the police for confiscating his vehicles, weapon and other expensive items. It said that the police had denied the allegation and said that it had raided the house after getting search warrants.
The police took custody of two vehicles and one Kalashnikov during the raid. The police had neither conducted a medical examination of Rashid's servant nor was he involved in the investigation. The said servant had never approached the court regarding the torture on him. The court said that the police had not done anything illegal and subsequently dismissed the petition.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 10th, 2023.
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