‘Refusal to give a bribe’: Police accused of illegal detention, false case

Court directs CCPO Tareen to probe the allegations.


Our Correspondent May 18, 2012

LAHORE:


An additional district and sessions court on Friday directed the city police chief to hold an inquiry into allegations against three officials for illegally detaining and wrongfully implicating a teenager who refused to give them a bribe.


Judge Abdul Qayyum Khan issued the directions after the Nawab Town station house officer (SHO) did not appear in court, despite being directed to do so by a bailiff.

The orders were issued on a habeas corpus (illegal detention) petition filed by Haseeb Razzaq. Razzaq is seeking the recovery of his friend Zafar Habib, an 18-year-old student from Nawab Town police.

Razzaq has named three officials – the Nawab Town SHO, a sub-inspector and a moharrar of Chuhng police – for implicating the detainee in a false case “to save the skin of Nawab Town police”.

Razzaq claims that on May 16, he and Habib were looking for a medicine for Habib’s mother who was in hospital. He says that Nawab Town police stopped them a picket near Shaukat Khanum Hospital. The officials, alleges Razzaq, then asked for a bribe to let them go. When Habib refused, the officials beat them up. The police then let Razzaq go but allegedly demanded Rs50,000 for the release of Habib.

The court had deputed a bailiff who confirmed that Habib was being held at the Nawab Town police station. Officials claimed that he had been brought in on May 17 by an investigation officer after a case was registered against him under Sections 392 (robbery) and 394 (causing hurt in committing robbery) of the Pakistan Penal Code. The FIR was registered against four unidentified suspects who snatched Rs495,000 at gunpoint from the complainant. However, said the bailiff, Habib’s name had not been entered in the roznamcha (diary). The bailiff told the court that he had told the SHO to appear before the court on May 18 (Friday).

The judge directed the CCPO to take action against the officials if the allegations proved true.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19th, 2012.

 

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