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| August 6, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-us-Sani 29, 1426 |
SC orders removal of Rawalpindi SP: Delay in recovery of abducted girl
ISLAMABAD, Aug 5: The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Punjab chief secretary to immediately transfer Superintendent of Police (SP), Rawalpindi and depute another officer in his place to recover and produce a missing girl before the court.
Led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, a three-member bench comprising Justice M. Javed Buttar and Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad also asked SP Inayatullah Farooq to submit a report to the police department about his failure to comply with the apex court order of producing Shehla, who had been missing for the last one year.
Shehla, the daughter of Raja Mohammad Yousaf, had disappeared on July 7, 2004 from Taxila. She was last seen with one Usman Ghani, also arrested by the police on July 11, 2004 on the complaint of girl’s mother Mukhtar Begum. Usman Ghani was later bailed out on the instructions of the Lahore High Court.
At the last hearing on Wednesday, the Supreme Court had issued a 48-hour deadline with a warning to the SP to produce the girl by Friday or face consequences.
“We will not allow any one to flout our orders since it involves the prestige of the highest court,” CJ observed after the bench was told about the inability of the police to recover the girl.
“The SP should go to his department and told his superiors to suspend him over his failure to carry out apex court’s order,” the CJ observed.
The deputy inspector general (DIG) of Police, Rawalpindi was also directed by the court to supervise the recovery of the abducted girl while the Punjab chief secretary was asked to submit report about the compliance of the instant order, without fail on Friday next.
During the proceedings, the SP also submitted a report before the court seeking more time to recover the girl.
He also pleaded before the court to remand Usman Ghani and an accused Adeel Arshad to police after cancelling the bail of Ghani and setting aside the release order of Arshad.
APP ADDS: The court adjourned the hearing till August 12. The accused, Usman Ghani, was produced before the court and mother of the girl, Mukhtar Bibi, was also present in the court.
The SP also presented a five-page report before the court and informed about action taken against relevant police officers.
The authorities have suspended four police officers that is two sub-inspectors and two assistant sub-inspectors.
However, departmental action has been recommended against the police officers, including Farooq Bhatti, the SDPO Taxila, Masood Pervaiz Kayani, SHO Wah Cantt police station (ex.SHO Taxila) and Muhammad Yousaf, ex-SHO Taxila police station.
The bench observed that a report related to the case, which was presented by the police through Assistant Advocate General Punjab, was unsatisfactory.
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