SHC orders IG prisons to suspend central prison’s senior superintendent

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has directed the Sindh inspector general of prisons to suspend the Central Jail Karachi senior superintendent for not releasing a prisoner despite the release writ from a competent court.

The direction came on a petition of Shazma Imran against the non-release of her spouse by the prison authorities despite his acquittal by the trial court. Her husband was allegedly handed over to some other law enforcement agency.

The petitioner submitted that her spouse Imran Ali Khan was acquitted by an anti-terrorism court in a case registered at the North Nazimabad police station on October 18, 2019, and in spite of the release order from the trial court, the detainee was not released from the central prison.

She submitted that the petition was filed against the non-release of the detainee and no explanation was offered regarding where the detainee had been kept. A division bench of the SHC headed by Justice Nazar Akbar expressed dissatisfaction at the statement submitted by the prison senior superintendent, Mohammad Hassan Sehito, and observed that prima facie it had been established that the officer had not released the detainee.

The high court observed that the officer had failed to maintain the record of the close-circuit camera which could show the release of the detainee from the prison. The SHC also took exception to the performance of the investigation officers of the case who failed to follow the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Sindh inspector general of police’s office to deal with the missing persons cases.

The high court observed that the investigation officer of the case had filed comments in the case almost one year after the registration of the case without giving any reasonable explanation on why the SOPs had not been followed in the instant case.

The high court directed the IG prisons to immediately suspend the senior superintendent of the Central Jail Karachi and conduct an inquiry into why he did not release the detainee despite the release order from the trial court.

The bench also directed the IGP to hold an inquiry against different DSPs who were assigned investigations to trace the missing persons and failed to follow the SOPs formulated by the police department.

The high court observed that police officers did not point out the involvement of any federal agency with regard to the custody of missing person. It observed that serious action should be taken by the Sindh IGP and IG prisons for the wilful failure of their staff to treat the detainee in accordance with the law and protect his life and liberty as envisaged under the Article 4 of the Constitution.

The SHC directed the DIG East to ensure the recovery of the missing person as the place of the incident was the central prison and submit a report by September 7. The high court directed the IGP and IG prisons to submit an inquiry report and take action against the prison’s senior superintendent and DSPs of the case before the court through the member inspection team-II.