LAHORE, Sept 5: Justice Tariq Shamim of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday initiated contempt of court proceedings against the Sharaqpur SHO, asking him to explain why his disobeying of the court order seeking transfer of police record for investigation not be considered tantamount to bringing the court into disrepute.

SHO Saleemullah was produced handcuffed in the court under an order issued on Aug 30 through which his non-bailable arrest warrants were also issued after he failed on more than one occasions to transfer the record of two cases to the Sheikhupura DPO, who had appointed a DSP to investigate the cases in which charges were controverted in a habeas corpus petition as false.

The court served the contempt notice in the proceeding of a habeas corpus petition through which Nasrullah Khan submitted that the Sharaqpur police had failed in transferring the cases’ record against his relatives Mohammad Sharif and Mohammad Aslam who, he submitted, were implicated in the cases minutes before the inspection of the police station record by an LHC bailiff.

The petitioner submitted that the police arrested his relatives in July without a criminal case against them. The court appointed a bailiff for the recovery of the detenus and inspection of the record to ascertain if they were arrested in a lawful manner.

The petitioner submitted that the police manipulated the record minutes before the bailiff’s raid and implicated Aslam and Sharif in false cases to cover up the illegality in their arrest. He submitted that the LHC subsequently issued a direction to the DPO concerned that the cases be investigated by an officer not below the DSP rank.

The SHO, he submitted, had been using delaying tactics in dispatching the cases’ files to the investigating officers. The SHO had not only failed to obey the order of the DPO, but also brought the court into disrepute by his conduct.