HYDERABAD, Sept 28: Justice Amir Hani Muslim of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, on Tuesday declined to hear a petition seeking judicial inquiry into an alleged fake police encounter after the petitioner's counsel avoided recording statement on oath.

The respondent SHO of the Latifabad A-section police station, Ayub Durrani, submitted before the court that he and the respondent SI should be sent to jail without being given a chance to defend if Noor Naz Agha, sister and counsel of one Mazhar, who was injured in a police encounter, stated on oath that her brother had not pleaded guilty in his presence at the civil hospital.

However, the counsel did not take the oath, saying Mr Mazhar's mother was the petitioner. She demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter. The police officials who recorded their statements denied allegations of the petitioner.

The DPO claimed that the encounter had taken place between robbers and police in which a police constable, Nadeem, and two others, Aijaz and Mazhar, had been injured.

He said two other accused had been arrested and cases under section 17(i), Hudood Ordinance, section 324, Qisas and Diyat, and sections 353 and 34, PPC, registered against them. He said Waseem, Abid, Aijaz and Mazhar had also been booked under section 13-D of the Arms Ordinance.

The DPO said he had forwarded an application of people of the area to the SP, investigations, for investigation into the matter. The SHO and the SI stated that the accused had barged into the house of one Shahid, the complainant, and then scaled over a wall of his neighbour's house.