Abuse of authority: Youth claims to have been implicated in 16 false cases

Counsel says police framed him because he refused to bribe them.

LAHORE:

A judicial magistrate on Tuesday summoned the police record of Hamza Zaib, a youth accused of sixteen cases of theft and robbery, by February 19 (today). 

Hamza Zaib had applied for bail after arrest in 16 cases. Courts have so far granted him bail in 10 cases. In three cases bail has been denied, in two instances after he was identified by the aggrieved. He is appealing the decision in both cases. Three applications for bail are pending before courts.

Zaib’s counsel Chaudhary Ghulam Mustafa said he had been arrested in several where he had not been nominated initially. He is accused of stealing and snatching cash and other valuables worth more than Rs1,500,000. Mustafa said Wahdat Colony police had kept Hamza Zaib in illegal detention. A habeas corpus petition was then filed asking the court to depute a bailiff to recover him from illegal detention at the police station. Mustafa said when the bailiff reached the police station on June 17, police officials asked him to tell the bailiff that he had not been arrested and had approached police on his own. He said police then fabricated cases against Hamza Zaib. Hamza Zaib told the court that police had forced him to dmit that he had been involved in street crimes.

Hamza Zaib’s counsel said he had been implicated in robberies in South Cantt, Iqbal Town, Garden Town, Township, Wahdat Colony, Faisal Town, Johar Town, Bhaghbanpura, and Ghaziabad.

Hamza Zaib stated in his petition that police had implicated him because he had refused to pay a bribe. He said that he was unaware of the cases in which he had been nominated.

South Cantt police told The Express Tribune that Hamza Zaib’s case had been handed over to the Gulberg police. The Gulberg police said that they did not have record of the case and that the investigation was now under Ghaziabad police. The Ghaziabad police said that they had not investigation the case.

The Garden Town investigation officer said that he had recovered a mobile phone from Hamza Zaib.
He said he was also accused other crimes. He also said that Hamza Zaib had not been nominated in any of the cases initially, and was only named  in supplementary statements.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 19^th, 2014.