KARACHI, Aug 18: A link judge of the Special Anti-Corruption Court, Karachi, remanded on Monday a former superintendent of the Central Prison in judicial custody till Aug 22 for his alleged involvement in a corruption case.

The former jail superintendent, Pir Shabbir Jan Sirhandi, was arrested for his alleged involvement in a corruption case and was handed over to the anti-corruption establishment on Aug 12.

The accused could not be produced in court on Monday as according to a report submitted by the investigation officer in the case, I.D. Mangi, he was admitted to the Jinnah Hospital on Aug 17 and was under treatment.

According to the prosecution, Mr Sirhandi along with his associates, had allegedly tortured an inmate of the Central Prison and collected Rs3.5 million as a bribe.

Assistant jail superintendents Nazir Hussain Shah and Arbab Shakeel, Head Constable Maqam Din and two other policemen were the co-accused in the case. However, they are still at large.

A case (FIR No. 25/08) against the police officials was registered under Section 161 (public servant taking gratification other than legal remuneration in respect of an official act) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Anti-corruption Establishment Karachi.

Meanwhile, an additional district and sessions court re-issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of five accused in a case pertaining to an attempt on the life of Asif Ali Zardari, now co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party, in 1999 and directed the inspector-general of police (Sindh) to execute the warrants till Sept 6.

Earlier, on July 28 the additional district and sessions judge-VII, South, Irfan Hussain Siddiqui, had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the accused, the former National Accountability Bureau chairman, Saifur Rehman Khan, his brother, Mujibur Rehman Khan, former inspector-general of police Rana Maqbool, former deputy inspector-general of police Farooq Amin Qureshi and former superintendent of the central prison Najaf Mirza and asked the IG Sindh Police to arrest them and produce in court on Aug 18.

However, the district public prosecutor, Abdul Maharoof, on the behalf of IG submitted a report stating that the warrants could not to be executed as all the accused could not be traced and sought more time from court.

The prosecution said that the accused had ‘unlawfully’ obtained physical custody of Asif Ali Zardari from an anti-terrorism court on the night between May 15 and 16, 1999 and took him to the CIA Centre where they subjected him to torture and forced him to record incriminatory statements.

Mr Zardari suffered injuries to his tongue and other parts of his body due to the torture while the police refused to register an FIR against the police officials attributing the incident to Zardari’s bid to commit suicide instead, the prosecution added.

A charge-sheet was submitted in court by the investigation officer on June 14 in which he had nominated former DSP Amanat Javed and Naveed Saeed as the co-accused. However, the court was informed that both the co-accused had died.

The case was registered in February 2005 at the Artillery Maidan police station after an inquiry conducted by a district and sessions judge established that the injuries were not self-inflicted.

The trial court, however, disposed of the case and acquitted all the accused in June 2006. Asif Zardari had moved a revision application in the Sindh High Court to challenge the trial court’s order.

On May 27, a single bench of the high court comprising Justice Bin Yamin suspended the trial court’s order.

The additional district and sessions judge-VII, South, had issued non-bailable arrest warrants for the accused around five times since May 28.

However, no arrests have been made during this period as according to the police two of the accused in the case had gone abroad while the remaining went underground.