July 06, 2006	Thursday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 9, 1427

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LAHORE, July 5: Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Wednesday observed that the registration of an FIR under charges other than the actual commission of crime was a serious offence for which the district police officer should be penalised.

The chief justice made the observation while heading a three-member bench of the Supreme Court which took up the abduction case of a physically handicapped person of Bolay Sharif village, Kallar Kahar tehsil, The Chakwal police registered a criminal case against two ‘influential’ people of the area under Section 342 PPC, which was a bailable offence, and that, too, after a delay of 13 days.

The offence was brought to the limelight through a letter to the chief justice by Azmatun Nisa, the mother of abductee Aamer Husain who, the mother said, was kidnapped by politically influential people and brothers Zafar Husain and Sangrez Husain because her son had voted against them in the local government elections.

Azmatun Nisa stated that her son was abducted on Nov 2, 2005, and the police failed to register an FIR for 13 days. Later, the police booked the accused in a bailable offence although they had committed an offence, which was non-bailable.

The chief justice turned the letter into a writ petition and called the Punjab advocate-general who submitted that the police had apparently registered the FIR under an irrelevant charge and the benefit of the wrong charge accrued to the accused.

The Chakwal DPO appeared in court with the report that the abductee had since been recovered and the district police had fixed responsibility of the wrongdoing against officials responsible. One of the officials, the DPO submitted, had been dismissed from service as punishment and others were being proceeded against.

The court was informed that the police did not take steps to recover Aamer Husain who had, in fact, called the police from Haripur that the accused had thrown him out of their car.

The apex court took a serious view of the police’s ‘negligence’ and the chief justice directed the DPO to also proceed against the ASP and submit within two weeks as to what punitive action had been taken against police officials and the accused persons.