HYDERABAD, Oct 28: The District and Sessions Judge, Nawabshah, Mir Khair M Talpur has recommended registration of a criminal case under sections 220 PPC against the former SHO police station Nawabshah Taluka, Ghulam Shabbir Sehar, and ASI Noor Mohammad Marri after illegal detention of 13 people was proved during a judicial probe by him.

The District and Sessions Judge had recommended that both the police officials had committed an offence under sections 220 PPC by holding 13 people in wrongful detention.

The probe was conducted under the orders of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit bench.

A division bench comprising Mr Justice Mushir Alam and Mr Justice M. Musa K. Leghari had asked the District and Sessions Judge, Nawabshah, on Jan 30 to hold a judicial inquiry into the detention of 23 people, who were found in wrongful confinement at the police station during a raid by the Joint Civil Judge and First Class Magistrate, Nawabshah, Mushtaque Ahmed Ansari.

The bench had also expressed its reservations about the use of intemperate language in his report, submitted before the court, against the subordinate judiciary by the SSP, Nawabshah, Sheikh M Umar (now serving in Punjab), and observed that appropriate action would follow after the judicial inquiry was over.

The court had asked the inspector general of police, Sindh, Aftab Nabi, to provide all assistance to the District and Sessions Judge during the conduct of an impartial inquiry. Recommendations, if any, would follow the result of the inquiry, it observed.

An applicant, Mr Mushtaque, through a lawyer, Rizwan Ahmed, had filed a criminal miscellaneous application before the court, praying for the recovery of his brother, M. Usman. He claimed that his brother was being subjected to torture and police did not produce him before any magistrate. He charged that police were demanding illegal gratification for his release.

He requested the court to issue a rule nisi for his production before the court.

The court had asked the District and Sessions Judge, Nawabshah, to appoint a civil judge to visit the police station and ascertain facts.

The District and Sessions Judge, appointed the Joint Civil Judge and First Class Magistrate, Nawabshah, Mushtaque Ahmed Ansari, who visited the police station on August 28, 2000.

The visiting judge in his report informed that he found 23 people in illegal detention including Muhammad Usman as only a 70-year-old man was in lawful custody while no entry was made in the Roznamcha (station diary) about other detainees.

The applicant’s brother, M. Usman, was not found there.

The WHC of the police station informed the judge that another detenue, Ghulam Hyder, was on police remand from the court of the Judicial Magistrate-II but no papers were available.

Other detenues had told the visiting judge that the SHO took him away a week back. Of these 22, police released five on the same day on personal bond. A teenaged boy among the detenues, M. Rashid, who burst into tears, said that ASI Abdul Rehman had subjected him to sexual assault.

The judge said the boy was found in a miserable condition with marks of burn injuries visible.

The District and Sessions Judge observed that the remaining 13 detenues had been kept in wrongful confinement.