Bullies in courts: Lawyers accused of thrashing policeman granted bail

Another lawyer beat up a policeman over a motorcycle.

LAHORE:

A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday granted protective bail to seven lawyers accused of thrashing an inspector in court. They were directed to appear in court in seven days.

The bench, headed by Justice Shahid Hameed Dar, passed the orders on a petition by seven lawyers, Babar Waheed, Sharafat Khan, Abdul Rasheed, Munir Ahmad Bhutta, Faheem Ahmad, Sajid Ali and Muhammad Irfan, seeking the quashment of an FIR against them at Islampura police station.

The bench also sought case records and summoned the relevant investigations SSP and investigation officer on March 13.

The petitioners’ counsel said that Islampura police had registered a terrorism case against the lawyers for beating up Inspector Umar Rasheed Butt in a sessions court during a hearing. He said the petitioners were innocent and there was no evidence against them.

The lawyer said that the police had registered the case to humiliate the petitioners. He requested the court to issue directions for quashment of the case. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik summoned the investigations DIG and other police officials on February 27 on a petition by Advocate Babar Waheed seeking the registration of a case against Sub-inspector Nishat Cheema, Inspector Umar Rasheed Butt and others.

The petitioner’s counsel had said Cheema and 20 constables had raided Waheed’s house. He said the police had manhandled Waheed’s nephew’s wife and taken her and her child into custody.

He said the bailiff had produced the woman and her child in a court and their innocence had been proven.

Lawyer vs policeman

A judicial magistrate on Wednesday granted bail to a lawyer and a head constable for allegedly beating up an assistant sub inspector at the Cantt courts.

Advocate SM Aflatoon and his brother Head Constable Falak Sher have been accused of thrashing ASI Muhammad Ikhlaq on February25 for handing over a motorcycle on court order that Aflatoon had told him not to.

According to details, Aflatoon had called police to complain about some people who were “snatching his motorcycle”. Harbanspura police had arrived at the scene and questioned both claimants to the motorcycle. Turns out that a man had bought the motorcycle on installments and sold it to another person, that person had sold the motorcycle to the lawyer. The man who had tried to “snatch” the motorcycle from the lawyer was the one who had sold the motorcycle on instalments.  ASI Ikhlaq took both claimants to the police station. The next day, the man who had tried to “snatch” the motorcycle obtained court orders and was handed over the bike. Aflatoon told ASI Ikhlaq not to give the man the motorcycle, despite the court’s orders, but he did. When Aflatoon saw ASI Ikhlaq in court on February 25, he and a couple of other people beat him up.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2014.