Torture in custody: Police, suspect summoned today

Medical examination confirms torture; Satellite Town police deny involvement.

GUJRANWALA:

A judicial magistrate in Gujranwala has summoned Satellite Town police station house office, an assistant sub inspector and a robbery suspect, who was allegedly tortured by the police, on Saturday (today).

Judicial magistrate Irfan Nasim Tarar summoned both parties after a medical examination report confirming torture on Tanveer Ahmed, a Shakargarh resident, was submitted in his court on Friday.

The report said three fingers of the suspect’s right hand had fractures and his body had been burned with hot iron rods. Dr Sohail Butt, who carried out the examination at Civil Hospital said there were severe burn wounds on the suspect’s right arm.

In his complaint, Ahmed’s counsel had submitted on Wednesday that he was tortured by ASI Azam Pehlvan throughout the two weeks he had been remanded to the police. He said his client had been wrongly implicated in a two-year-old car lifting case. He said Ahmed was not even nominated in the FIR in which the police had arrested him.

ASI Pehlam rejected the suggestion that he had tortured Ahmed during interrogation.  He said he had made up the torture allegation to avoid prosecution.

Talking to The Tribune, Satellite Town station house officer Tahir Majid Khan said Ahmed had been sent to the central jail at the end of his remand a week ago. “If he had been tortured by Satellite Town police he should have complained about it then and not from the central jail,” he said.  The SHO said the suspect had likely inflicted the injuries upon himself to avoid prosecution. “He (Ahmed) is a hardened criminal wanted for several robberies in Shakaragarh. We suspect that he is involved in car lifting in Gujranwala as well,” he said.

Central Jail Superintendent Muhammad Zia corroborated police’s statement and said that every suspect brought to the jail from the police station is examined by a medical board before he is sent to a barracks. “If he had been tortured at the police station, our medical board must have noticed that out during their examination,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2012.