Tortured to death: Warrants issued for police and PU officials

Inquiry by SSP found that guard died of injuries inflicted by police officials.

LAHORE:

An additional district and sessions judge has issued arrest warrants for February 15 for three police officers and three Punjab University employees for alleged torture that resulted in a man’s death.

Petitioner Muhammad Ramazan, in a private complaint, submitted that his brother Muhammad Imran, a security guard at the university, had been falsely accused of theft and tortured, resulting in his death.

Ramazan submitted that on February 18, 2012, Punjab University Estate Officer Kamal Gul, Chief Security Supervisor Shaukat Ali and Resident Officer Javed Sami detained him illegally and tortured him, before turning him over to the police for alleged theft.

Muslim Town Sub Inspectors Mian Khan and Zafar Bukhari were put in charge of the interrogation and they badly beat Imran, who began vomiting blood, said the petitioner. They threatened to kill him and make his death look like an encounter between police and criminals, he said.

On February 22, a court ordered the police to get the suspect examined by doctors and send him on judicial remand. But the police officers did not take him to the hospital, while the jail officials refused to take him in on judicial remand because of his poor condition, so the officers took him back to the police station. Ramazan said that he had been told this when he approached the jail to get his brother out on bail.

He told the court that on March 4, his brother succumbed to his injuries. Ramazan and his friends and relatives staged a protest, after which a case was registered against the accused police officers.

Ramazan told the court that he and other witnesses appeared before Inspector Abid Hussain, who was investigating the case, but he did not put their statements on the record. The inspector tried to protect the accused rather than conduct a thorough and fair investigation, he said, though an inquiry conduct by the SSP (Discipline), on the orders of an additional IG, had found the allegations against the accused police officials to be true.

At previous hearings, the court had issued notices to the accused, but received no response. On Monday, the judge issued arrest warrants for the three police officers and the three Punjab University employees.

He directed the SHO concerned to arrest them and produce them before the court at the next hearing, and also completed the challan for the FIR against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 29^th, 2013.