HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday asked the anti-corruption establishment (ACE) to take a police inspector into custody for taking bribe in a case of honour killing.
The division bench comprising Justices Salahuddin Panhwar and Fahim Ahmed Siddiqui further ordered departmental action against the inspector and his deputy for criminal negligence in the case.
The order was passed on a petition filed by Atta Mohammad Leghari through his lawyer, Saleem Hashmi, seeking formation of a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe double murder of his son Abbas Leghari and Ms Heer in Haji Ali Bux Leghari village near Mirani Mori in Matli taluka on June 24.
He said that he had sent marriage proposal for Ms Heer which was turned down. Then his son and the girl decided to marry of their own free will but they were killed and then Heer’s brother, Nawab Ali Leghari, lodged an FIR against late Abbas’s brother, Mohib Leghari, accusing him of killing Abbas and the girl.
The petitioner said that he then filed an application in sessions court Badin under Section 22-A CrPC, requesting registration of FIR against his son’s murder after which police lodged a case against Malik Leghari, Nawab Ali Leghari, Shafi Mohammad, Mohammad Jumman and Inayat Ali on July 17.
He said that inspector Jiandal Shah who was investigating the case visited the crime scene on July 21 and got contact numbers of the two parties. He then kept demanding bribe from Atta Mohammad for clearing his son’s name from the FIR, after which he paid him Rs85,000, he said, adding the inspector also claimed bribe from the accused nominated by him as killers of his son and the girl.
The court observed that after the couple’s murder the SHO lodged two FIRs at the same police station. Both parties levelled allegations and counter-allegations for murder whereas police declared the accused as innocent and submitted a report for challenging the case as A-class (untraceable), said the court.
The bench directed SSP of Hyderabad to investigate the matter personally, unveil criminals involved in the double murder and asked DIG to proceed against the inspector and sub-inspector, Mehboob Alam Pahore, for criminal negligence.
Published in Dawn, August 17th, 2017
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