Police brutality: ASI arrested in court after cancellation of bail

Sajid Farooq was accused of torturing, falsely implicating man

HARIPUR: A former SHO, who had been demoted to the post of an ASI, was arrested from the court’s premises in Haripur when the judge cancelled his pre-arrest bail on Tuesday.

The City police had registered a criminal case against their former SHO, Sajid Farooq, for allegedly subjecting a detainee to brutality and implicating the suspect in a fake case. Proceedings were initiated on the order of additional district judge Riaz Ahmed Khan on May 14 this year. The policeman was immediately demoted to the rank of ASI.

According to the City police records, the then sub-inspector and SHO Sajid Farooq raided a house just before Eidul Fitr on Malikyar Road in 2014. He arrested Raja Habib Alam on charges of waylaying and registered an FIR against him under Section 382 of the PPC. Farooq also allegedly subjected the detainee to severe torture.

Alam later went to the court of a district judge, contending he was sitting outside his house, recovering from a spinal cord surgery when Farooq, along with his subordinates, arrested him and entered the residence.  The complainant, asking for legal action against the former SHO, said the officer beat him mercilessly and forced him to confess to a crime he did not commit.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the judge ordered the registration of an FIR against Farooq on May 1 and the police lodged a criminal case under Sections 337-L and 427 of the PPC.

However, Farooq could not be taken into custody until his pre-arrest bail was cancelled on Tuesday when a civil judge ordered he be arrested at the court premises. Although he was taken in, the police refrained from using handcuffs and took him to the police station in an official van. He will be sent to jail on Wednesday (today), said police.

Farooq was currently posted in Torghar after he was demoted to the rank of an ASI on the orders of IGP Nasir Durrani. The police chief’s enquiry also found the former SHO guilty of torturing the businessman and implicating him in a false case.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 1^st, 2015.