KARACHI: Police fail to record statement of burn victim
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, May 22: A 14-year-old boy with fatal burns could not have his ‘dying statement’ (statement before death) recorded owing to the lethargy of the medico-legal officer on duty at the Civil Hospital on Monday. Inquires by Dawn showed that the unknown boy was found with serious burns in street no 26 near the shrine of the Abdullah Shah Ghazi in the limits of Clifton police.
The boy was taken to the Civil Hospital in an Edhi ambulance at around 3pm. The boy diagnosed with 98 per cent burns was sent to the burns unit of the CHK, but the medico-legal officer on duty did not report the incident to the police control so that police of the respective station could record the boy’s statement.
Police said that entry on the police control was made at 7pm, by that time the boy had fallen unconscious.
Hospital sources said that usually with such acute burns recovery was almost impossible.
Had his statement been recorded, the police might have got some clue to the perpetrators of the crime. Unless some one came forward and contacted the police about the incident, the case would bee treated as `blind’.
Another remote chance is that the boy make a miraculous recovery and give his statement.
On March 28, 2003, a 12-year boy Mohammad Owais died of self–immolation in Shah Faisal Colony after he was sexually assaulted by two policemen.
The boy was taken to the Civil Hospital by his elder brother. The police from the investigation wing of the Shah Faisal police station reached there so late that by that time the boy had fallen unconscious and later died. The boy had suffered 70 per cent burns.
Thus his statement before his death could not be recorded by the police. Some policemen were detained following the incident, but in the absence of evidence, they were set free.
The then home minister, Syed Sardar Ahmed, had reacted sharply to the incident, saying that an SP (investigation) would conduct the inquiry into the incident, the challan would be produced in an ATC so that the suspects could get the maximum punishment.
KILLED: A security guard was killed in a dispute over a plot in Model Colony on Monday.
Police said that the incident occurred at plot 20, near the 9-C bus stop. Police said a security guard was posted at a plot in the possession of an estate agency. On Monday afternoon unknown persons in a car pulled up there and opened fire at security guard Mohammad Bashir.
The wounded guard was rushed to the hospital where he was pronounced dead. A duty officer of the Model Colony police station said that the piece of land in question was disputed.
SUICIDE: A man fed up with his joblessness ended his life by self- immolation in Orangi Town on Monday.
Police said Munawar Khan, 35, set himself on fire after pouring kerosene on himself in his house in Mujahid Colony. Police quoting family sources said the victim was father of two and was jobless for a long time.
Police sent the body to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for legal formalities.
PHONE ROBBERIES: Two men were deprived of their cellphone and cash at gunpoint near Business Recorder Road late Monday night.
Complainant Arshad and his friend were sitting near the Adamjee College at around 1am when two men alighted from a car in which three girls were also sitting in the backseat.
According to the complainant, they thought that they were asking for some address. However, they took out their pistols and made off with cellphones and cash.
The complainant informed the Jamshad Quarters police about the incident.
