Illegal detention-torture case sought against cops

Petitioner says her son and his friends were named in nine false cases.

LAHORE:

A woman has approached a court to get a case registered against Mughalpura police officials for ‘illegally detaining her teenage son and his friends and nominating them in false cases’.

The petitioner says that an inquiry by the CCPO’s Office had also found that the officials had falsely implicated the Grade 10 students.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Malik Tariq Mehmood Zargham on Friday directed the Mughalpura SHO to submit his comments to the court on June 8. According to Sabira Bibi, the petitioner, on January 30 some officials of the Mughalpura police pulled over her son and his friends (all matric students), near the Mughalpura bridge, on their way to the market.

When the boys requested the officials to let them go, alleges Sabira Bibi, they beat them up and took them to the police station where Sub Inspector Muhammad Pervez detained them. Pervez also confiscated Rs2,300 and two mobile phones that the young men had on them, she says. The SI and two other officials, identified as Rafaqat and Fayyaz, then named them as suspects in nine false cases. The three were detained illegally for more than four days and tortured, the woman told the court. She has also alleged that Pervez took Rs10,000 and  Rafqat another Rs5,000 from her for not torturing her son and his friends.

She told the court that she had submitted an application to the DIG concerned who had referred the matter to the CCPO. The latter’s inquiry declared the officials guilty and the officer directed that the false charges be dropped against the minors. She then asked the Mughalpura SHO to register a case against the police officials involved for illegal detention and bringing false charges against the three boys, confiscation of money and mobiles and torture but he ignored her complaint.

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