KARACHI: A district and sessions court has directed the Sindh and Karachi police chiefs to conduct departmental proceedings against the SHO of the Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) police station and his team said to have been involved in illegal detention of a citizen and demanding a bribe for his release.

District and Sessions Judge (West) Abdul Naeem Memon also directed the inspector general of police and SSP-CTD to record the statement of the applicant or detainee under Section 154 of the criminal procedure code (CrPC) and proceed with the course of law against the SHO-CTD and his team.

The judge ordered that in case applicant Tahira Nazeer, or her son, the detainee, would not appear before the SSP, then the contents of the memo of her petition, the report of a judicial magistrate and statements of the detainee and the applicant earlier recorded before the court should be considered for registration of the case against the SHO-CTD and his team.

These directives came on a petition filed by Ms Nazeer, who had approached the court last week pleading to order recovery of her son, Talal Nazeer, from the illegal confinement of the CTD SHO.

Judge says the arrest and illegal detention of a suspect’s son was like short-term kidnapping by police

On the court’s directives, a judicial magistrate had conducted a raid at the CTD camp office near the Shahid Hayat Police Training Centre, Saeedabad and recovered the detainee.

Later, the magistrate produced the detainee before the district and sessions judge and also submitted his report, mentioning that at the time of the raid no entry, FIR or memo of the arrest was found in the police record to justify his detention.

The magistrate said that Sub-Inspector Dilawar had apprehended the detainee under Section 54 of the CrPC without tangible evidence.

Later, the SI filed a report with the court, stating that Talal Nazeer was associated with the investigation of an FIR lodged against his father, adding that the detainee had merely told him that his father had left for Punjab and that due to the fear of a police raid at his house, he and his brother were keeping an eye on movement of the police towards their house.

The district and session judge noted that the right and liberty of common citizen had been curtailed by the SHO of the CTD police station and his team.

He observed that keeping the son of any accused as substitution was a crime, adding that “the police officials of the PS-CTD have committed illegality and so ... they have committed an offence”.

The court remarked: “The incident ... is more or like short term kidnapping on the part of the police officials of the PS CTD. Moreover, the police took custody of the citizen and then placed the same in an iron cage in order to compel his mother to satisfy the demand of the illegal gratification.”

The judge noted: “Keeping any citizen in illegal detention is an offence but more particularly when such abduction is coupled with demanding the amount in lieu of the release, then such offence becomes more serious and for that the law enforcement agencies must check such elements existing in the department in accordance with the law, so that the common citizen may make the free movement and enjoy the liberty in the society.”

The judge stated in his order that the right and liberty of the common citizen had been curtailed by the SHO of PS CTD and his team.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2021