High-handedness: CIA incharge to explain missing luggage

Police had arrested the man and kept him in illegal detention until the bailiff rescued him.

KARACHI: A district and sessions court issued on Thursday notice to the incharge of the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) to return goods worth hundreds of thousands of rupees to a man who was arrested by the police on his arrival to Karachi on April 25.

Ahmed Saba, the district and sessions judge in district South, issued notice to the incharge of CIA (SIU), Saddar, Karachi, for June 14.

Muhammad Ali Channa had filed a habeas corpus application under Section 491 of the Criminal Procedure Code in the district and sessions court, stating that the police had detained his son in-law, Naeem Butt, at the airport upon his arrival from Malaysia on April 25. The petitioner had alleged that Butt had subsequently been kept in illegal custody.

In another application, Channa said that the police had seized goods worth hundreds of thousands of rupees, including passports, a laptop, cameras, mobile phones, foreign currency and clothes from the victim and his wife. They had not returned the same after Butt was rescued in a raid on court's directives.

When asked, the police had submitted a report before the court but "nothing had been mentioned about the personal search of Naeem Butt", the court observed. The bailiff, however, stated on oath that the luggage was present in the room from where Butt was found at the SIU center in the raid on May 2.

Subsequently, the court issued notice to the CIA official for certification and a reply without fail. The case will be taken up on June 14.

Case history

On May 2, a head bailiff, Mudassar Hussain, had raided the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) office and found Butt detained there without any charge. The police, however, refused to release him, claiming that he had been booked by another police station. However, the duty officer was not able to show any proof with respect to his arrest or involvement in any case, revealed the bailiff's report.

On the other hand, the police stuck to its version and had claimed in the court that Butt was arrested from Gulshan-e-Iqbal on the day the bailiff had conducted the raid.

"Such story of SHO (SIU Saddar) is not appealing to the prudent mind and I do hereby apprehend that all the documents were prepared by the police officer to knock out the proceedings," the judge had stated in the order.

Moreover, the judge had asked the anti-corruption department's chairperson to conduct an inquiry and register a case against the allegation that the applicant had paid Rs200,000 to the police officer as illegal gratification to release the victim. The judge had also ordered the Inspector General of Police to conduct a departmental inquiry in connection with the illegal detention. "Such actions are defaming the name of law enforcement agencies and cannot be tolerated at any cost," the judge remarked.