PESHAWAR: In the first ever conviction in a
missing person case in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a judicial magistrate on
Friday sentenced a police official to three years imprisonment after he
was found guilty of taking a person into custody, which led to his
enforced disappearance.
Magistrate Zafarullah Mohmand
pronounced that the prosecution had proved its case against a Peshawar
SHO, Arshad Khan, of Khairur Rehman’s kidnapping and subsequent
disappearance.
Soon after conviction, the SHO filed appeal with
the court of additional district and sessions judge Kaleem Arshad, who
admitted the appeal to the hearing and suspended his conviction under
Section 426 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Magistrate awards three-year detention to Peshawar SHO
The convict was arrested last year on August 29 in the case after his
pre-arrest bail was dismissed by the Peshawar district judge.
Later on, he was set free on bail by the Peshawar High Court.
The
detainee, Khairur Rehman, was allegedly taken into custody by a police
party from his residence situated at Academy Town here on February 9,
2009, and later on the Supreme Court ordered registration of the case
following which the FIR was registered at Pishtakhara police station on
September 25, 2012.
The case was registered under Section 365 (kidnapping) of Pakistan Penal Code.
The
complainant in the case was Saifullah, brother of the detainee, who
directly charged the said SHO for kidnapping his brother.
He
alleged that they were resident of Bajaur Agency and due to precarious
law and order situation his brother, Khairur Rehman, and Sister Khaista
Jana, were residing at Academy Town.
The complainant said his
brother resided in the upper storey of a rented house whereas an Afghan
family resided on the ground floor.
He added that the police party headed by Arshad Khan raided the house and recovered an abducted child from the afghan family.
The complainant said the police also took away his brother and sister and his sister’s two children.
Later on, the woman, Khaista Jana, and her children were freed.
She
had recorded her statement with the police and had claimed that while
setting her free Arshad had also given her Rs1,000 and also told that
after interrogating her brother he would also be released with in next
few days.
However, the detainee has been missing since then.
Defence
lawyers Mian Abdul Fayyaz and Sikandar Shah said the SHO was falsely
implicated in the case and he had no concern with the disappearance of
the alleged detainee.
The defendant denied he had raided the house of the detainee.
The
lawyers said the witnesses had recorded conflicting statements and even
it was not clear from where the detainee was taken into custody as one
of the relatives said he was arrested at a mosque.
Lawyer for the
complainant Sajeed Afridi said the SHO was directly charged in the case
of abducting the detainee. He added that the Supreme Court had also
taken notice of this case and the FIR against the SHO was registered on
its direction.
Mr Afridi said children of the woman had also identified the SHO and that he had taken the family away.
Meanwhile,
before the court of additional district and sessions judge, lawyer Mian
Abdul Fayyaz said the trial court had erred in convicting the appellant
as the evidence on record did not connect him with the commission of
the offence.
He requested the judge to suspend the sentence until the final disposal of the appeal.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2014
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