Lacking evidence: Judicial magistrate rescues rickshaw driver from ‘unlawful’ detention

Police fail to produce evidence to justify detention.

KARACHI: A judicial magistrate has found on Wednesday a rickshaw driver who was being kept allegedly in wrongful confinement at the SITE B police station.

On Wednesday, Sohail Ahmed Mashori, the judicial magistrate in district West, conducted the raid on the directives of the district and sessions judge, West, Ghulam Mustafa Memon. Mashori found the rickshaw driver, Dilawar Khan, after the police failed to produce any documents that could link him to any offence or justify his detention.

Khan's cousin, Irfan Khan, had gone to court and filed a habeas corpus application under Section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code against the traffic DSP for the West zone, Zulfiqar Hussain Shah, ASI Muhammad Riaz, the SHO of SITE-B police station and other officers at the traffic police check post located near Ghani Chowrangi in SITE.

The petitioner said that Khan had recently bought a new rickshaw and was heading home on March 29 when the traffic police issued a Rs1,000 ticket to him for driving without a licence plate. The police impounded the rickshaw and directed Khan to take it back after submitting the challan at the bank, he added.

When Khan went to take his rickshaw back on April 1, he was illegally detained at the police station and the law enforcers allegedly demanded Rs25,000 for his release, Irfan said, adding that his cousin was arrested without any warrants or disclosures of any involvement in any crime.

A court official, who was with the team, told The Express Tribune that the rickshaw driver was confined in the lock-up and his rickshaw was also parked at the police station at the time of the raid. The police were unable to produce any FIR or solid evidence to justify his detention, he said.

Magistrate Mashori released the victim on a personal bond, the official said, adding that he also bound the respondents as well as the applicant's side to appear before the district and sessions court, West, on Thursday (today).

Published in The Express Tribune, April 3^rd, 2014.