KARACHI, March 21: An undertrial prisoner committed suicide in the bathroom of a judicial lock-up in the district courts, Malir, on Wednesday, police and court sources said.

They said that a robbery accused, 26-year-old Riaz Khan, was found hanging from the window of the lock-up’s restroom. He apparently hanged himself from the window with his shalwar string, they added.

Al-Falah SHO Asif Munawar told Dawn that the UTP was brought from the Landhi jail to the districts courts, Malir, in connection with the hearing of his case.

He was produced before the district and sessions judge (Malir), who indicted him in the robbery case.

The UTP pleaded not guilty. The court summoned all witnesses for the next hearing.

Following the hearing, he was brought back to the lock-up, where, like other UTPs, he was also unchained. However, the police claimed that the UTP went to the restroom and hanged himself.

The body was shifted to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a post-mortem examination and other required medico-legal formalities, which were completed in the presence of a judicial magistrate (east).

Later, the body was handed over to his family.

Riaz was arrested by the Sachal police on Jan 6 this year for robbing passengers of a minibus of route A-3 of valuables with his accomplices near the Superhighway.

Some passengers caught hold of him, but his two accomplices managed to escape, the police said.

Sachal SHO Azhar Iqbal said that the people handed him over to the police and a case (FIR 12/2012) was registered against him under Sections 392 (punishment for robbery) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

He said that Riaz hailed from Mohmand Agency and lived in Sohrab Goth. He came to the city from his hometown when a military operation was launched there.

The victim’s father, Naeem Khan, who came to the JPMC to receive his son’s body, told the media that during his last meeting with his son in the Landhi jail, Riaz appeared to be dejected and told him that he was standing at a bus stop when the police arrested him and later booked him in a robbery case.

The mysterious suicide of the UTP left a question mark over the performance of the policemen deputed at the judicial lock-up.