ISLAMABAD: A woman from Azerbaijan, arrested by police for living in Pakistan illegally, escaped from police custody on Monday, resulting in the suspension of the concerned Station House Officer (SHO) and registration of a case against the investigation officer.

According to police sources, the suspect along with another Azerbaijani woman was arrested from a house in G-9/3 in a raid. During preliminary interrogation, they failed to produce documents such as passports or visas for Pakistan and the police were not satisfied with their explanations.

They were shifted to Karachi Company Police Station for further legal action and were put behind bars following registration of a case.

Later, an assistant sub-inspector took them to District and Sessions Court Islamabad in Sector F-8 and produced them in the court of civil judge where a judicial remand was given. After the court appearance, the ASI took the women along with him to a shop to photocopy some documents. While the ASI was busy talking to the shopkeeper, the accused managed to escape.

When the ASI realised he had lost his prisoners, he conducted a search and found one of the women while the other is still at large.

When senior police officials found out about the incident, orders were issued for the ASI to be arrested and for a case to be registered against him. The SHO Karachi Company Inspector Khalid Awan was suspended and transferred to Rescue-15 while Inspector Rana Mubarak was appointed SHO Karachi Company.

A police official told Dawn that the ASI, who was the investigating officer in the case, took the two foreign women to court in a private car, without informing the SHO and the Moharrar. The ASI also did not take a police guard with him, which would have included a policewoman. He also did not handcuff the accused.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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