SHC suspends four more DSPs over botched probes

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Thursday took an exception to the performances of the investigating officers of missing persons cases and suspended four more deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) over non-compliance with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the Sindh police for tracing missing persons.

Hearing a petition against the disappearances of citizens from different parts of Karachi, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Nazar Akbar observed that the IOs tasked with tracing missing persons had not complied with the SOPs, but they had rather tried to conceal evidences in the cases.

Regarding the disappearance of private transport conductor Sameer Afridi, the court observed that the IO had not recorded the statement of the bus owner despite a lapse of four years, which was sheer negligence on the part of the officer.

The court also observed that the IOs merely collected heaps of papers instead of conducting investigations in accordance with the SOPs issued by the provincial police chief for tracing missing persons, and expressed concern over the capability of the officers to investigate such cases.

The court ordered suspending the DSPs who were not complying with the SOPs in missing persons cases, and directed the new IOs to recover the missing persons within two weeks and in strict compliance with the SOPs while dealing with such cases.

In the disappearance case of Nadeem Patel, the IO said he had visited the office of the Counter Terrorism Department’s Raja Umar Khattab in Civil Lines but he was not present there. The IO sought time from the court to submit the progress report in the case. The court granted the officer two weeks.

The petitioner said Patel’s family had registered a case against SSP Khattab for his alleged enforced disappearance but no action had been taken by the police. The court has already suspended a DSP, former IO of the missing person case, for treating the nominated accused Khattab as a witness in the case, and has directed police high-ups to take disciplinary action against the officer.

A division bench headed by Justice Nazar Akbar took exception to the performance of the investigation officer of the case, DSP Yousuf Jamal, and observed that the investigation officer repeatedly tried to deceive the court and made misstatements.

The court observed that first, the investigation officer tried to misguide it by declaring that the missing person was involved in several criminal cases and placed on record a 23-year-old FIR. It further said that the responsibility of the police was not to prove that the missing person was a hardened criminal, and even if he was notorious criminal, the duty of the police to arrest him would be even more serious.