LAHORE: Police on Monday told the Lahore High Court that an alleged detainee, Asad Bhatti, was a nominated suspect in the disappearance case of Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Mufakhar Adeel and Advocate Shahbaz Tatla, but was still at large.

A report submitted to the court on behalf of the capital city police officer categorically denied custody of Bhatti, saying he had not been arrested so far.

Justice Waheed Khan was hearing a habeas corpus petition of Advocate Zaid Sarwar Bhatti for the recovery of his brother, Asad Bhatti, from the alleged custody of police.

Petitioner’s counsel Aftab Iqbal Chaudhry stated that Asad Bhatti had himself appeared before police on Feb 15. However, he said, police detained him without registration of a case and had been subjecting him to torture to extract a statement of their choice.

The lawyer said the detainee was a diabetic and cardiac patient and his life was in danger with police. He claimed that the petitioner was in illegal detention because he was not yet produced before any court in violation of his fundamental rights.

He asked the court to get the brother of the petitioner recovered from the illegal custody of police.

After going through the police report, Justice Khan referred the petition to the court of Justice Chaudhry Shehram Sarwar, who previously heard it, for further proceedings.

SSP Adeel and Tatla, a former assistant advocate general of Punjab, are missing since Feb 7.

As per media reports, Bhatti, a common friend of both, told police that Adeel had murdered Tatla and disposed of his body by drowning it in a container full of acid.

Police identified Bhatti from a CCTV footage that showed him sitting besides the police officer, who is still at large. Police also recovered the SSP’s car from Johar Town.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2020