A division bench comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Imam Bux Baloch found out that the inspector had arrested two innocent men and had let the real culprits escape.
The intentional damage to the alleged fake drugs recovery case came to the notice of the court during the hearing of a bail application, which was submitted by accused Muhammad Imran and Muhammad Faisal.
The two men were allegedly arrested by the said delinquent officer from shop Nos. 164 and 169 in the Medicine Market, Denso Hall, Karachi.
The bench observed in its order that Investigation Officer (IO) Shaheen Akhtar did not mention the dates on the witnesses’ statements recorded under section 161 CrPC. Since there were no proper witnesses who saw the arrests take place, the entire FIR and raid on the shops has come under doubt.
The bench said that according to the records, two other men, Zubair and Rizwan, who were present at the time of the raid were neither arrested nor nominated in the FIR. They were let off and instead Imran and Faisal were implicated.
Both applicants, Imran and Faisal, were granted bail against a surety of Rs500,000 each.
The bench ordered the FIA director-general to look into this case and at the manner in which the IO had conducted the investigation. The DG was directed to take departmental action as well as lodge a criminal complaint against the IO for letting off the main culprits, which is a “fatal omission”.
The bench also ordered the removal of the IO from drug cases and said he shall be removed immediately and not be assigned to these cases in the future.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2010.
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