LAHORE, Dec 7: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday ordered the Chunian police station SHO and an ASI to submit on Wednesday the reason of torturing an accused who claimed that he had lost his hearing.
The court wanted SHO Nasir Javed Bajwa and ASI Mohammad Yasin to explain why they carried on investigation of the case against petitioner Mohammad Ramzan, still in police custody, despite the court order that it be transferred from the DPO to the range police and probed by an officer not below the rank of the DSP.
The order was issued after a medical report found scars on the petitioner's body. The court also ordered another examination of the petitioner by an ENT expert of the Services Hospital and directed the Kasur police to contact the hospital's medical superintendent on Wednesday for the purpose to ascertain how far his hearing has been impaired due to torture.
Petitioner Ramzan was facing pickpocket charge. He was first arrested in January and was released upon a habeas corpus petition filed by his wife. A court bailiff recovered him in chains from the police custody away from the police station.
The court then ordered a judicial inquiry in the incident where the petitioner could not prove his charges against the police. When Ramzan was released on bail on June 22, the Chunian police arrested him again the following day under an FIR registered on June 23.
The petitioner submitted that he was arrested as retaliation by police which felt offended for his approaching the high court. He submitted that he was kept in custody for about two months during which he was severely beaten up, hung upside down and his body was pressed with iron rollers.
His counsel submitted that the SHO had been sentenced by an anti-terrorism court and he remained behind the bars for about one year. Officiating advocate-general Hanif Khatana submitted that the petitioner was a proclaimed offender who remained a fugitive for 11 months.
