A court has asked the Karachi police chief to conduct an inquiry against the station house officer (SHO) of the Mithadar police station and other police personnel accused of illegally detaining citizens in order to collect money from them for their release.
Three interned suspects - Zeeshan Malik, Shahid Ahmed and Muhammad Rizwan – had filed separate applications against the policemen, saying that they were illegally detained and humiliated and were forced to pay bribes to police.
Malik, Ahmed and Rizwan were booked under the Section 23-1(a) of the Sindh Arms Act and Sections 6 and 9-B of the Control for Narcotics Substances Act by the Mithadar police in the mid of January.
They were produced by the investigation officer in the court of Judicial Magistrate South – XIV Sayed Andal Shah to seek their remand for inquiry into the allegations.
The judge asked the suspects if they had any complaint regarding the behaviour of police with them during the custody, to which they replied in the affirmative and submitted applications in writing.
Ahmed said that he was picked up on the evening of January 12 when he was returning home after finishing work. He said that some policemen in plainclothes abducted him in a high-roof van. He alleged that the policemen tortured him in illegal confinement and asked him to get Rs5,000 from his family in order to secure his release.
He said that his sister arranged Rs2,000 and gave it to the SHO but he was still not released. Malik accused the same policemen in high-roof of illegally detaining him and demanding a bribe for the release. He added that he was a refrigerator mechanic and since he could not pay the money, he was framed in a fake case.
He added that he was picked up on January 12 when he had come out of home to buy milk for his children. He said the police had arrested him before as well, however, he was acquitted by a court in 2009.
Meanwhile, Rizwan said that on January 13 he was called at the police station for some electrical work but was later locked up. He said that when his wife came there to ask about his whereabouts, she was not told anything until the next morning.
They all requested the court for justice and action against the policemen, over which the judge wrote a letter to the Karachi additional inspector general of police asking him to conduct an inquiry against the cops. The judge asked an inquiry report from the Karachi police chief by February 4.