KARACHI, Nov 24: A sub-inspector of the Karachi police has been reverted to substantive rank and placed under suspension for conducting investigation into a case that did not warrant prosecution and trial in a court of law.
The action against SI Mohammed Husain of the Site police has been taken by the police department following critical observations made by the judge of an anti-terrorism court. The SI has been demoted to the post of ASI.
Judge Syed Zakir Husain of the ATC-1 had observed in his judgment that the case had been wrongly sanctioned for prosecution, though there was no case at all warranting prosecution and trial in a court of law.
The case had been registered on June 18 this year on the complaint of Ghulam Moinuddin, who reported that he was deprived of his car at gunpoint by six persons. He also produced one of the alleged car hijackers, Syed Mazhar Ali, before police.
During the trial it came on record that the complainant had bought the car on instalments from a bank, and the accused named in the FIR was an employee of Access World Services, the contractor of the bank authorized to recover and seize defaulted vehicles.
The complainant lodged a criminal case against the authorized agent, though it was a dispute of civil nature between the bank and the complainant over outstanding dues.
Acquitting the accused in the case, the judge observed: I will be failing in my duty if I would not point out that the case in hand has wrongly been sanctioned for prosecution by the concerned quarter and in the light of all the relevant material, collected by the investigation officer, even an ordinary prudent mind could understand that there was no case at all warranting prosecution and trial in a court of law. The prosecution of like nature is no service to the public interest, rather it causes wastage of public revenue, energy and time.
The judge also advised the inspector-general of the Sindh police to take care of the prosecution side and make it effectively functional in public interest. He is also desired to circulate a directive among the officers entrusted with the task of giving sanction and opinion for prosecution in the matter of crimes, not to allow prosecution unless they have examined the record and evidence and found the same as much flawless and positive as could be required for a successful prosecution in accord with the law and practice of the court.
Sources in the police department said following the judgment, the IG ordered an appropriate action against the officers responsible for sending the case to the ATC without any justification.
They said the IG also issued a directive to all the prosecution deputy superintendent of police (PDSPs) for proper scrutiny of cases and to recommend the prosecution of cases on the basis of justifiable evidence for a successful prosecution of cases in court.
In a recent directive, the DIG of Karachi directed all the five senior superintendent of police to personally ensure that the scrutiny of cases was carried out by all the concerned, including PDSPs, properly and in accordance with the law so that prosecution might not fail in court.
