KARACHI, Oct 19: Shaikh Abdul Majeed, the father of the deceased Hafiz Shaikh Mohammed Azeem, filed on Friday a criminal petition in the court of district and sessions judge, Central, Abdul Maalik against the provincial police officer and others for their non-compliance with the court’s order to produce a charge-sheet within seven days.

Mr Azeem and his bride Beenish were found dead under mysterious circumstances on Aug 11 this year, the morning after their wedding. The relevant FIR No. 391/07 was registered at the Taimuria police station under Section 302/34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Criminal petition No 375/2007, filed on Friday by Mr Majeed through his counsel Shaikh Javaid Mir, stated that on Sept 20, the petitioner had filed an application for the transfer of the investigation from Zone West to another zone because of the investigation team’s failure to arrest the actual accused and its victimisation of the bereaved family.

As a result of that application, on Sept 26 the court directed the senior superintendent of police investigation Sindh to transfer the investigation under Article 18 (III) of the Police Order 2002 to any senior, competent and responsible police officer who would take rapid action and submit a charge-sheet within seven days.

The petition submitted by Mr Majeed stated that on Sept 28, the SSP investigation entrusted the investigation to Inspector (SIO) Khalid Khan of the North Karachi Industrial Area police station, to be supervised by the DSP investigation West Zone, Ghulam Hussain Korai.

It was stated that both police officials had been members of the earlier investigation team, which meant that the SSP investigation had not transferred the investigation as the court had ordered and had thus violated the Article 18(6) of the Police Order.

The petitioner’s counsel, Mr Mir, stated that through a Sept 29 letter he had apprised the capital city police officer of the factual position of the case and had requested the constitution of a board under the relevant rules, but to no effect. He stated that the investigation had once again been assigned to a party against whom the complainant had grievances.

Mr Majeed’s counsel asked the court to take action against what he described as delinquent police officers for deliberately flouting the court’s orders as provided for in SBLR 2007 Sindh, page 960.

In his earlier application, Mr Majeed had stated that the police called him repeatedly to different police stations and subjected him to severe torture at the Taimuria and Gulberg police stations.

The bereaved father claimed that in addition to beating him, the police blindfolded him, took him to undisclosed locations during interrogations and warned him against naming Abdul Samad and Abdul Ghayur as the accused in the case. Mr Majeed stated that the IO was biased and was attempting to hush the investigation up.