LAHORE, Oct 23: Illegal detention has always been the only tool in the hands of the Punjab police to investigate suspects.

Interviews with police officials from the rank of a constable to the DIG reveal that the illegal detention is not considered a crime in police working and is said to be the most overlooked illegality by the police command.

Investigators defend it on the plea that legal procedure do not facilitate them to acquire desired results in cases involving hardened criminals, especially those accused of crimes against property. Senior police officers reportedly brush it aside and keep their eyes shut knowing well that the practice is going on unabated. Reason to this is said to be the results in shape of recoveries and confessions the investigators acquire through the illegal detention.

Official record shows that the Lahore police have registered over 20 cases of illegal detention this year. Some 45 people were reported to have been recovered from the illegal confinement of the police during the period under review. They included elderly people, women, youngsters and even a nine-year-old boy. Majority of them were recovered by the Lahore High Court bailiffs. Rest of them were rescued by senior police officers. The officers raided police stations or private torture cells when families of the detainees reported the matter at different forums and pursued it thoroughly.

All the detainees were reportedly subjected to physical and psychological torture besides harassment to them and their families, inhuman treatment and threats to kill during the illegal detention. One of the detainees was allegedly hit on his sensitive parts. Their detention period is reportedly ranges from 24 hours to 20 days.

Fake cases were reportedly registered against some of the detainees. They also kept on changing places of detention when the LHC bailiff carried out raids or families of the detainees succeeded in identifying the places.

Majority of the detainees had no case registered against them. Bribe was demanded by the police in almost all the cases for release of the detainees. Signatures of some of the detainees were acquired on plain papers by the police on the time of their release.

The nine-year-old Muhammad Asif was kept in illegal detention on suspicion of his involvement in a theft case by the Gulberg police. He was handed over to his mother Zainab Bibi after a week when he was reportedly vomiting blood and was not able to walk.

Moazzam was subjected to the worst kind of torture. Hair from his head, moustaches and eyebrows were shaved by the Burki police besides physical torture on his failure to arrange Rs 50,000 bribe. He was recovered by an LHC bailiff.

Police sources say that the reported cases do not reflect actual position in this regard. Most of the cases go unreported. “There is hardly a police station without suspects being detained illegally.”

There are also reports of killing during the detention. At least two people had died during illegal detention of the Lahore police this year.

EXAMPLE: One such killing which took place in 1998 can be cited as an example of the most horrible incidents of this kind. Sarfraz, 22, resident of Kasur, was employed with a cell phone shop on the Queens Road, Lahore. In February 1998, owner Shaikh Amir suspected that he was involved in a robbery which had taken place at his shop some six months ago.

According to an inquiry carried out by the then CIA SP Rauf Dogar, the youngster was subjected to torture by the shop owner in a bid to get his confession. Later, he handed over Sarfraz to the then Gulberg police DSP Tahir Alam Khan. The area where the robbery took place did not fall in the DSP’s jurisdiction. He detained the youngster just to oblige the shopkeeper who was said to be his friend.

The DSP handed over the ‘suspect’ to the Main Market police post incharge Shaikh Hammad who tortured him also. The family of Sarfraz met him through an acquaintance of Hammad. The DSP shifted the accused to a ‘secret’ place when he learnt about the meeting.

When the family failed to trace the youngster again, they approached Ishfaq Wyen, an MPA from Daska, who rang up the DSP. The DSP told him that they had kept the suspect somewhere outside the police station. They were avoiding his meeting with his family to escape a raid by the LHC bailiff. The DSP asked the MPA not to try to report the matter and send the family to him. He would arrange a meeting of the family.

Next day a meeting was arranged. Two policemen were holding him because he was unable to walk. The DSP assured the family that the suspect would be all right in a couple of days and “we will release him as he had nothing to do with the robbery.”

The DSP’s staff officer visited a cousin of Sarfraz three days after the meeting and informed him that he had escaped from the place where he had been detained.

From February 12 to March 3 neither anything was brought on record about the accused nor his arrest was penned down. His arrest was put on record the day he was showed to have escaped from police custody.

To avoid his own skin, the DSP registered a case against two assistant sub-inspectors. However, Sarfraz’s father suspected that he had been tortured to death in police custody. On a complaint in this regard, the then CIA SP conducted the inquiry and held the DSP responsible for killing the accused in police custody. The inquiry recommended registration of a case against the DSP and his immediate arrest.

There has so far been no clue to Sarfraz. Neither the case was registered against the DSP nor he was arrested. He reportedly used his influence and transferred the inquiry to the crimes branch where no further progress was made.

The DSP got himself transferred outside Lahore where he spent some months to avoid pressure. Now he has joined the Lahore police again and is serving as Civil Lines police DSP, the same place where the incident took place.

ACTION: Criminal cases have been registered against some 50 policemen this year for keeping suspects in illegal custody and subjecting them to torture. They included constables, ASIs, SIs, inspectors and SHOs. Besides the cases, departmental action was also taken against them.

OFFICIAL VERSION: DIG (training) Dr Azhar Hasan Nadeem said steps were being taken to train policemen for investigation on scientific grounds. “We do not condone the investigation through illegal detention,” he said, adding: “Law does not allow this practice in any case.”

Lower cadre police officials use the detention for making progress mainly because of ignorance of law and their inefficiency, he said. Flaws in the police system were another reason to adopt the practice. However, he claimed that the police reforms being implemented in phases were aimed at ending all such illegalities in the police department.

LAHORE SSP: Aftab Cheema said: “We always discourage the illegal confinement and punitive action is always taken against those responsible for it.”

The officials who indulged themselves in such practices do so just to facilitate themselves by avoiding legal intricacies, the SSP said.

“Anybody having such complaint can contact me or meet me in person,” he said and claimed that he would not let the culprit go unpunished.

WHAT ILLEGAL DETENTION SERVES? Some seasoned police officers gave two main reasons behind this practice. One of them is said to be the incompetence of the police to investigate, especially to deal with legal matters. Second is said to be the practice of corruption among policemen.

The officers claim that majority of the investigators do not know how to complete legal procedure and formalities after a suspect is caught. Simply, they say, the investigators do not record the arrest of the suspect and start interrogation. After keeping the accused in illegal custody for days or weeks, the investigators acquire confessions and make recoveries. Later, they consult some retired or experienced serving police officers how to complete legal formalities to start proceedings in the case on the basis of the results they have got through the confinement, they add.

They say that keeping an accused in illegal detention opens avenues of corruption for investigators. They take along the suspect with them and visit all places where he has any contact. “With the suspect in hand, the investigators threat dozens of other people to implicate them with him and extract money on these grounds.”

Since the arrest of the suspect has not been put on record, the investigators select which thing recovered during this period will go on record and which they will keep for themselves, the officers say. So the practice has always a “charm” for the investigators and to make it an end will take long time, they said.