Prisoner beaten up after hearing in Malir court

Muhammed Afzal after pleading guilty thought he would be set free, but that was not the case.

KARACHI: A prisoner, who had already spent 19 months in jail, was allegedly beaten up by the Malir court police after his hearing.

After pleading guilty for a crime he committed in 2011, Muhammad Afzal said that he and his accomplice, Noor Ali, were dragged from the court room and beaten. “I was slapped and my head was smacked against the bars,” Afzal claimed.

The police, however, claimed that Afzal injured himself while he was being escorted to the lockup. The lockup in-charge, ASI Riazuddin Rahmani, said that he was informed that Afzal was not leaving the courtroom following the proceedings.

He added that Afzal banged his head on the bars when the police was making his final withdrawal arrangements from the court to the jail.

“Afzal was frustrated because he was given another date in his case, even after he pleaded guilty.” Witnesses had several versions of what happened but many of them supported the police’s version.

Afzal and Ali were accused of stealing Rs200 and a mobile phone (Nokia 6070) from a man, Salman, in the limits of Ibrahim Haideri police. An FIR No. 89/11 under section 392 of the Pakistan Penal Code was registered against them. They were charged on May 18, 2011 and were in jail since then.

“Afzal thought that the judge would release him right after his confession,” a court reader told The Express Tribune. He pleaded guilty before the court hoping that he would be let go considering the time he had already spent in jail.

After the incident, the prisoners were presented before the 3rd additional & sessions judge, Farzana Iqbal. She ordered them back into jail custody after hearing the allegations and directed that Afzal be medically treated at the jail and fixed the hearing of the case for September 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2012.