KARACHI, May 3: A senior medico-legal officer was beaten up allegedly by the additional police surgeon at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Wednesday.

Hospital sources said that senior MLO Dr Aqeel Khandwala came to the JPMC’s medico-legal section and reported the incident after he was issued a letter by the Saddar police station.

However, Additional Police Surgeon Dr Zulfiqar Sial denied the charge saying that no such incident occurred on Wednesday morning.

Tracing tense relations between him and the additional police surgeon since his posting at the JPMC in September 2005, Dr Aqeel Khandwala said: “On Wednesday morning, when I went to the office of Dr Zulfiqar Sial, he hurled abuses and slapped me. I went to the clerk office, where Dr Sial came charging at me with a stick. The staff present there rescued me,” Dr Aqeel Khandwala claimed.

He said that his relations with Dr Sial worsened over the postmortem report that he issued. The report showed involvement of a lady ASI in the killing of a domestic servant at her house, he said. “Dr Sial had asked me to change the report which I refused,” Dr Khandwala claimed.

He further said that since then he had not been assigned any duty. It was only last month that he was assigned duty at the medico-legal section, he added.

However, when Dr Zulfiqar Sial was contacted by Dawn, he refuted the latter’s claim. “If such an incident has taken place in the morning why he (Dr Khandwala) went for the medico-legal report at night,” Dr Sial remarked.

Dr Sial pointed out that he (Dr Khandwala) had issued a fake supplementary report in the case of lady ASI. “I had requested the health department for constitution of a medical board in this connection,” he said.

“Since, he used to leave office without performing his duties, I had requested the health department to stop his salary,” Dr Sial said.

Dr Sial termed the issuance of the medico-legal report to Dr Khandwala a conspiracy on part of the corrupt mafia active against him.