The Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought written replies from the Model Town division superintendent of police and Raiwind station house officer on a petition seeking the recovery of a seminary student allegedly detained illegally by the police.
Rizwan Mehboob filed the petition alleging that the police had picked up his brother Usman four months ago, even though he had not been wanted for any crime or been named as an accused in an FIR. He said that Usman had been kept covertly in detention ever since, despite the legal requirement that police produce a suspect arrested for a crime before a magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest. He asked the court to order the police to produce his brother before the court.
The Model Town SP told the court on Tuesday that Usman had not been arrested from an area in his jurisdiction.
The court then directed the SP and Raiwind SHO to submit their replies within a fortnight.
Meanwhile, another court directed the capital city police officer (CCPO) to find and produce before the court on September 5 a Punjab University student, Muhammad Abid, who is allegedly in police custody.
The petitioners, members of Abid’s family, alleged that the police had arrested him from Qila Gujjar Singh some months ago and since then he had been kept secretly in detention. They asked the court to order the police to locate Abid and bring him to the court.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 28th, 2013.