KARACHI: Custodial death puts policeman behind bars
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 14: A police official on Saturday was put behind the bars after a departmental inquiry found him responsible for the death of a suspect in the lockup of Baghdadi police station.
The Lyari Town police officer, ASP Ali Mohsin, said: "I have registered an FIR against ASI Atif Shahzad. I have also suspended SHO of Kalakot Naeem Khan and Duty Officer of Baghdadi police station ASI Ali Mohammad for their negligence and lack of supervision."
Police picked up one, Mohammad Yusuf alias Kaloo, 32, from near Jumman Shah plot in Kalakot, Lyari, during the night between February 3 and 4.
Police had claimed to have recovered seven grams of heroin powder from his possession and registered FIR 28/04. As some repair work was under way at the Kalakot police station, the suspect had been kept in the lockup of Baghdadi police station where he died on February 5, according to the police.
The police took the body to the Civil Hospital on at about 5pm the same day, but initial findings of the postmortem examination report (No.40/04) suggested that the suspect died late in the night on Feb 4. A final report is to be released after receipt of the histopathalogical test and chemical examination of the victim's body viscera.
The police claimed they found Yusuf dead at about 8am on Feb 5. They called judicial magistrate for legal proceedings and then sent the body to the hospital.
When contacted by Dawn, family members of the victims claimed that SHO Naeem and ASI Atif had come to their house, located near Mujahid Park, and asked Yusuf to accompany them. Javed alias Faheem, Yusuf's 14-year-old nephew, narrating that night's happenings said: "It was second day of Eidul Azha and the clock struck 8pm. SHO Naeem and ASI Atif came to their house in a private car and a police mobile van. Many policemen were sitting in the van. They called my uncle out and took him away. They told us that they would let him off some time later."
The suspended SHO Naeem contested the family's claim and told Dawn: "We picked up Yusuf at about 11:45pm on Feb 3 from Jumman Shah plot where he was about to sell heroin powder. Since I have been posted as SHO Kalakot for one and a half month, I have been trying to eradicate menace of drugs from my area and Yusuf's arrest was part of it."
He alleged that Yusuf was a heroin addict and also a supplier of the drug operating in the area. In a similar case, he was arrested about 12 years back, he added.
The victim's neighbours, Yasir, Fahad, and Yunus said that Yusuf did take the drug but he never was a supplier. They said that he had abandoned taking heroin some four months back as he had been admonished severely by his elders for his addiction.
Yusuf was presently operating the family's ice shop in the area. On February 3, when he did not return till late in the night, his family members got anxious and some of them visited the Kalakot police station where they saw Yusuf hanged with ropes and being beaten up with chhittar (a leather strip).
"When I got into the police station with other family members, I found my uncle who was hung with ropes. He was crying and weeping."
Yusuf's family includes his eight sisters and a mentally-retarded elder brother. He was subjected to third-degree torture constantly in presence of his family members, relatives of the victim revealed.
"The policemen were initially demanding Rs10,000 (to let him off) and when we told them that we cannot arrange such a huge amount, they raised their demand to Rs50,000," said Faheem.
"It is a totally baseless allegation", SHO Naeem reacted. "We had arranged his family's meeting with Yusuf at the Baghdadi lockup," he added.
One of Yusuf's sisters challenged Naeem's claim, saying: "We were told that Yusuf was in Kalakot police station. When we proceeded there to see him, we were sent to Baghdadi police station. We passed the whole night (Between Feb 3 and 4) shuttling between the two police stations but were not allowed to see him."
Yusuf's mother, a widow, said: "I was allowed to see Yusuf from a distance at about 9pm on Feb 4. Yusuf was crying and asking me to pay the money and get him freed from their clutches. I kept on begging policemen but they did not let him off."
The SHO suggested: "Yusuf might have fallen down sometime before his arrest and might already have suffered some injury in his abdomen as he had told the police while in custody. We had taken him to Lyari General Hospital, on Feb 4 at around 8pm, where doctors provided him treatment."
Contents of the postmortem examination report, however, suggest that the abdomen injury was sustained by the victim about one to two hours before his death. There is also a gap of 20 to 24 hours between his death and the postmortem examination which was conducted between 6:15pm and 10pm on Feb 5.
The doctors who conducted the postmortem found eight surface injuries on the victim's body. Blood was seen congested in his chest and skull which suggested that the victim was hanged upside down.
The TPO of Lyari Town, Ali Mohsin, said: "I have conducted a thorough inquiry. About the policeman's claim that Yusuf had sustained injuries before his arrest, the TPO argued: "Why didn't he mention it in the memo of arrest? It showed a mala fide intention."
"Yusuf had abandoned taking drugs. He was now taking care of his widow mother and other family members by selling ice at the family's shop. His mother was thinking about his marriage but the police have devastated her dreams," Faheem said.
