Illegal detention case: Law enforcers’ bail plea rejected
Crime Investigation Department’s (CID) police inspector Malik Adil and police constables Raja Maqbool alias Raja Anjum and Amjad have been accused of arresting a man, Muhammad Akram, while he was travelling in his car along with his wife, Fatima Bibi, on the National Highway in February.
The woman stated in her complaint that the couple was going to see a doctor when three armed men in civvies, pretending to be policemen, stopped their car and sat inside. The couple was ordered to drive but after a mile or two, one of the three men, who introduced himself as CID officer Raja Anjum, handed Bibi a contact number before dropping her off at the roadside and went away with her husband.
The woman went back home and told one of her neighbours, Muhammad Yaseen, about the incident. When they contacted the cellphone number given by the suspects, they were asked to come at the CID Garden Headquarters.
“My husband had been severely tortured at the headquarters,” stated Bibi, “and the policemen demanded Rs1.5 million to release him, threatening to implicate him in false cases otherwise.” The amount was bargained at Rs300,000 while Rs20,000 were given to the suspects to stop torturing Akram.
The complainant sold her jewellery off and managed to raise Rs150,000. When she contacted Anjum, she was asked to come near the Anklesaria Hospital. “Anjum released my husband after receiving the cash but kept the car and its documents with him,” Bibi alleged.
In the next instalment, Akram paid another Rs100,000 to the policemen but he was threatened to pay the remaining amount within 15 days or else he would be picked up again, she stated.
At that stage, the couple went to the Anti-Corruption Court to request the registration of a case against the suspects. FIR No. 7/11 under sections 161, 348, 5(2) and 34 of the anti-corruption act was lodged against the men. The couple was provided marked notes for the final payment and a South district judicial magistrate was requested to raid with a police party to arrest the suspects.
In the next call, Anjum asked the couple to come at the Cantt railway station but didn’t turn up to collect the money as he had allegedly been informed about the sting operation. The policeman, however, threatened Akram that he would now be shot dead in an encounter for “creating problems”.
The judicial magistrate then issued arrest warrants for the men but they escaped from the Garden headquarters.
What proved to be their undoing was that the policemen, to avoid arrest, turned up at the Anti-Corruption Court seeking bail before arrest on November 14. The court rejected their plea and ordered their arrest from the courtroom. The men turned violent and tried to escape. They also attacked three officers of the Anti-Corruption police in their attempt to escape the court. They were later sent to jail.
On November 22, district and sessions judge Rashida Asad rejected their bail-after-arrest applications while directing the police to submit the final charge-sheet against the suspects on the next hearing.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 24th, 2012.
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