LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge granted bail to a man accused of selling drugs after uncovering a slew of discrepancies in the police record of the case.
Judge Sana Khan Attique had summoned the record on a post-arrest bail plea filed by accused Muhammad Ijaz. She found several contradictions in the first information report and the supplementary statements filed later by the police. For example, the FIR registered on October 23, 2011, at Ravi Road police station, stated that Muhammad Ijaz had been arrested as he was selling to a customer and that he had been carrying 500g of hashish. The supplementary statements said that he had been carrying 505g of opium, and he had been arrested after he jumped from the roof of a building.
The judge also found it suspicious that the record stated that the police officials took the accused to a hospital after the fall, while also stating that the accused had “admitted” that his injuries were old wounds not caused by the police.
She said that some of the police statements appear to have been tampered with. No time of arrest was mentioned, and there had not been a chemical test of the substance Ijaz was allegedly arrested in possession of. The record included a list of crimes Ijaz was supposedly involved in, but he had not been tried or found guilty of any of them.
The judge told off Constable Abdul Ghani, who presented the record in the court. “Is it the job of police officials to implicate innocent people on false charges?” she asked the constable sarcastically. He remained silent, and the judge told him to leave the courtroom.
The judge referred the record to the capital city police officer (CCPO) and the deputy inspector general (investigations) via District and Sessions Judge Mujahid Mustaqim Ahmed, seeking an inquiry into the matter and action against the police officials concerned.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 22nd, 2011.
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