Man in custody brought to hospital in critical condition

Wife accuses police of torturing him, demanding bribe.

MULTAN:

A man, arrested by the police a few weeks ago, was brought to Nishtar Hospital on Thursday in critical condition.

His wife alleged that he had been tortured by the police and abandoned at the hospital when he was about to die ‘to safe themselves from legal action’.

Doctors treating the man, identified as Bahar, said that he had bruises all over his body.

They said he was vomiting some blood. His tests had been sent to the laboratory, they said.

Bahar’s wife told The Express Tribune that he was arrested from his house in Hassanabad several weeks ago on suspicion of robbery. She said the police had kept him in the lock up for several days before getting his remand.

A few days ago, she said, Gulgasht Station House Officer Mian Ata, Seetal Marti SHO Muhammad Zia and Zakariya SHO Rana Farooq took him to Gulgasht police station and later to other places. She said they had told her to bribe them if she wanted to see her husband again.



On Thursday, she said, she was informed that her husband was at the hospital in critical condition. There was no policeman there when she arrived at the hospital, she said.

She accused the three SHOs of torturing her husband. City police Superintendent Naeem Khan told The Express Tribune that Bahar was brought to the police station following an order from a judicial magistrate.

He said he was brought for questioning and that they had not beaten or tortured him. He said several detainees had complained that he got into fight with them. He was taken to the hospital when he was found lying unconscious in the lockup, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2013.