By: Ishaq Tanoli

KARACHI: A sessions court on Saturday summoned the station house officer of the Defence police station on a woman’s plea seeking recovery of her daughter who she said had been in police custody for the past five days.

District and Sessions Judge (south) Hasan Feroz also directed the deputy inspector-general of police to produce in court the captive woman on Monday.

The court took up a habeas corpus application for hearing on Friday and directed the head bailiff to carry out a raid on the Defence police station and recover a woman, Amina Hanif, if found in wrongful confinement.

When the matter came up for hearing on Saturday, the head bailiff (south), Mudassar Hussain, submitted a report in court stating that on the court’s directive he along with the applicant, her son and their lawyer raided the Defence police station on Friday evening to recover the applicant’s daughter.

However, she was not there and a duty officer said he had no information about the victim.

He stated that Defence SHO Raja Mushtaq came there and misbehaved with him (the bailiff) and the applicant’s son and also threatened to arrest the latter.

The SHO and other police officers were told to appear in court on Saturday, he added.

The judge berated the police when the SHO did not appear and sent a sub-inspector and assistant-sub-inspector to represent him in court. Subsequently, the court directed the Clifton SP to produce the SHO in court on 2:30pm.

The SP sent DSP Zameer Abbasi in court who also failed to produce the SHO in court.

The court passed an order which stated that the captive was not found at the police station during the raid.

“However, the arrogance shown by SHO Defence namely Raja Mushtaq to the raid commissioner and the learned counsel for applicant who also accompanied him along with relatives of detenus not only smacks of foul-play but also contemptuous disgrace to the process of the court. Let this petition under Section 491 CrPC be converted into application under Section 22-A CrPC,” it added.

The court also put the DIG (south) on notice with a direction to produce victim Amina Hanif in court on Monday morning and summoned the SHO Defence for his personal appearance.

The judge also ordered DSP Abbasi to attend court on Monday.

The applicant, Nasreen Akthar, moved a habeas corpus application under Section 491 of the criminal procedure code in court on Nov 18 and stated that the police had taken her into custody along with son Sajid Hanif and daughter Amina Hanif on the night of Nov 15 in their house and detained them at the Defence police station.

She said the police released her the following day and also set her son free a couple of days after his arrest, but her daughter was still in police custody.

The applicant alleged that the police were demanding a bribe for the release of her daughter and in case of non-payment they threatened to book her in a murder case.

She maintained that her daughter had unlawfully been detained at the Defence police station for the past four days and prayed to the court for her recovery.
Source: Dawn
Date:11/20/2011