Murder Trial: Cops blame one another for losing evidence

Arrest warrant for police inspector to explain where important evidence in a murder case had gone.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for a police inspector for not appearing in court to explain where important evidence in a murder case had gone.

Judge Sana Khan Attique issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for Inspector Muhammad Saeed, having already done so for Inspector Iftikhar Rasool at an earlier hearing of the case.

Other officials including the Hanjarwal police station house officer had told the judge that Rasool was the last person to handle the evidence from the crime scene, which included the victim’s clothes and blood-stained earth. They said that Rasool was to take the evidence to the Sadar Malkhana and a forensics lab, but the items had disappeared.

However, Rasool appeared before the judge on Thursday to deny this and said he was not even posted at Hanjarwal police station when the evidence went missing (March 3, 2009). Inspector Saeed had appeared before the court initially, but has not been seen since the evidence went missing. The court had already issued several show cause notices and arrest warrants for him, but the SHO told the judge that he was unable to find him.

The judge, unhappy with the SHO’s performance, issued directions to the capital city police officer on Thursday, saying he must take action against such police officers who do not perform their duty.

According to the FIR of the case, Muhammad Saleem, Shehzad, Nadeem Hussain and Muhammad Hussain killed Azhar Abbas in a dispute over a petty issue. Saleem is in custody while the other three are on bail.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2011.