KARACHI, July 2: A district and sessions court ordered on Monday a judicial inquiry into what appears to have been a wrongful confinement of a man at the Crime Monitoring Divisional Cell of police in Clifton.

The court got the detainee released on a personal bond and directed a judicial magistrate to complete the probe within a week.

On a directive of the sessions court, a head bailiff had raided the cell situated on the first floor of a building that housed the Gizri police station on June 28 and got Mohammad Younus released, but the police again forcibly took him away.

The following day the court issued a show-cause notice to Sub-Inspector Haq Nawaz Phalphoto, the officer in charge of the cell which was functioning under the supervision of the Clifton SP.

When the matter came up for hearing before District and Sessions Judge (south) Hasan Feroz on Monday, the police officer submitted his reply along with the copy of an FIR in which he stated that the detainee was booked under Section 13-D of the Pakistan Arms Ordinance, 1965 at the Baloch Colony police station and he was brought to the cell for an investigation by the police station concerned.

However, the judge expressed dissatisfaction over the reply and came down on the police officer by asking him as to why he had not produced the same document at the time of the raid and again took the detainee into custody after the raid commissioner got him released.

The judge also asked the police officer to produce a notification regarding the establishment of the cell. But he remained unable to submit it. Also on the court directives, jail authorities produced the detainee, who had been remanded in judicial custody by a magistrate, in court and the judge ordered his release on a personal bond.

The court appointed Judicial Magistrate (south) Jahangir Khan as an inquiry officer and directed him to complete the probe within seven days.

The court also ordered SI Phalphoto, the SHO and a duty officer of the Gizri police station and the SHO of the Baloch Colony police station to appear before the inquiry officer along with relevant record as well as the notification issued to set up the crime monitoring divisional cell.

The head bailiff, the detainee and the applicant were also directed to ensure their presence before the inquiry officer to record their statements.

According to the habeas corpus application filed by Mohammad Yasin under Section 491 of the criminal procedure code, the police had picked up his brother, Younus, near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine on June 26.

The applicant stated that his brother had unlawfully been detained by the police at the crime monitoring divisional cell.

He alleged that the police were demanding Rs300,000 for his release and he had also paid Rs50,000 to the police, but failed to arrange the remaining amount and prayed to the court for the recovery of his brother.

The head bailiff in his report submitted in court on June 29 that he got the detainee released on a personal bond since the officials of monitoring cell as well as the Gizri police had failed to furnish any evidence to justify the detention, but SI Haq Nawaz again snatched the custody of the detainee and also misbehaved with him.

On a pervious hearing, the court had observed that SI Haq Nawaz committed an offence prima-facie attracting Sections 345 (wrongful confinement of person for whose liberation writ has been issued), 346 (wrongful confinement in secret), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 337-K (causing hurt to extort confession or to compel restoration of property), 166 (public servant disobeying law with intent to cause injury to any person) and 220 (confinement by person having authority who knows that he is acting contrary to law) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Sources said that the special investigation team (SIT), Gizri was renamed as the crime monitoring divisional cell after a bailiff had raided at the SIT, Gizri, then headed by SI Munir Chandio, on April 7 and found three women along with a two-year-old baby detained there while the police failed to produce any FIR or other document to justify their detention.