GUJRAT, Sept 17: The Lalamusa Sadar SHO and other policemen have filed a writ petition with the double bench of the Lahore High Court against the registration of a case against them on the orders of a LHC judge, it is learnt here on Friday.

The respondents are Sabir Hussain Shah, the Punjab IGP, the Gujranwala DIG, the Gujrat DPO, the Gujrat SP Headquarters, the Gujrat DSP Headquarters and the state. Lalamusa Sadar police station, under the LHC directive on Monday night, had registered a dacoity case against several policemen including its SHO Muhammad Arif Gondal.

The complainant in the case is the LHC judge, who ordered quashment of an FIR being lodged by the Lalamusa Sadar police against the petitioner and his 34 companions on gambling charges.

The FIR No 275, lodged under sections 452/395 and 156 Police Order 2002, revealed that the police had registered an FIR No 168 under section 5 of the Punjab Prevention of Gambling Ordinance 1978 against petitioner Sabir Hussain Shah and his 34 companions on the complaint of SHO Arif Gondal.

The SHO along with other policemen had raided the outhouse of the petitioner, arrested him and his 34 companions, seized cash, foreign currency, wristwatches, cell phones and three cars and a motorcycle worth millions of rupees.

It said the gambling ordinance did not allow any police official to enter on any premises without the permission of a magistrate, and the police was only competent to directly conduct a raid and apprehend persons if they were involved in gambling at a public place, a street or a thoroughfare.

In the present case the police had raided inside the outhouse and this act of the police was not only illegal but also of mala fide intention. Therefore, the court ordered the quashment of the gambling FIR.

SP Headquarters Javed Iqbal Shami present in the court was directed to register a case against Arif Gondal and other members of the raiding team. The Gujranwala range DIG was directed to have this case investigated through his own independent agency and the probe be completed within a fortnight.

In the end of the FIR, SP Headquarters Javed Iqbal Shami had nominated the raiding team members. They are Elite Force inspector Asad Cheema, SIs Riaz, Anar and Gulzar, ASI Sajjad Akhtar, head constables Shafique and Yasin Baig, constables Arshad, Abdul Rahman, Shabbir and Imtiaz.

The SP Headquarters had produced before court of the judge the lodged FIR on Sept 15. The booked policemen, including the SHO, had filed a writ petition with the double bench of the LHC seeking to set aside the previous decision.

The petitioners' counsel pleaded that the police had conducted the raid after receiving several public complaints about the gambling. He also pleaded that most of the gamblers arrested by the police had previous record like registration of gambling cases against them by other police stations.

Sources claimed that during the scrutiny of record, the police found that most of the gamblers had record of FIRs in Wazirabad City and Sadar police stations, Lalamusa City and Jalalpur Jattan police stations. The record will be produced before the double bench on next hearing date.