KARACHI, Sept 7: A sessions court appointed on Friday a judicial magistrate to conduct an inquiry into the custodial death of a robbery suspect at the Hyderi police station.

Tayyab along with his brother was picked up by the police in Kausar Niazi Colony, North Nazimabad, and allegedly tortured to death on Thursday.

The judge in charge of the district and sessions court (central), Naseem Mansoor, appointed Judicial Magistrate (central) Asif Ahmed as the inquiry officer, asking him to determine the suspect’s cause of death and submit a report in court.

Under Section 176 of the criminal procedure code, a judicial magistrate is empowered to hold an inquest into a custodial death.

The officer in charge of the Hyderi police station, Irfan Haider, informed the sessions court on Friday about the death of the suspect at the police station.

He submitted that an FIR (380/12) under Sections 380 (theft in dwelling house) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code was lodged against Tayyab, his brother Jaffar and their parents on a complaint of Taj Mohammad.

He was of the view that the police arrested Tayyab and his brother on Sept 6 on the information provided by the complainant and claimed that Tayyab was unwell at the time of arrest.

However, he failed to explain that if the suspect was unwell why he had been taken to the police station instead of a hospital. The station house officer, Fasihuddin, was suspended after the incident, he added.