MUHAMMAD IMRAN vs INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE art — 2024 PLD 626 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

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MUHAMMAD IMRAN VS INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE art.199---Habeas corpus petition---Recovery of detenu from illegal custody of police---Petitioner sought recovery of detenu, his real brother, who was allegedly in illegal detention of police---Held, that through the orders dated 07.02.2024 and 09.02.2024, directions were issued to police of concerned Police Stations to produce the detenu before the Court---On 14.02.2024, SHO Police Station concerned appeared before the Court and filed his report according to which the detenu was arrested on 13.02.2024 and sent to judicial lockup for Test Identification Parade (TIP) in connection with case FIR for the offence under S. 392, P.P.C---Such conduct of the SHO Police Station concerned was sufficient to raise eyebrows, as the entire process of arrest and sending the detenu to the judicial lockup for TIP was carried out after the direction was issued by the High Court to produce him before the Court---In reply to the different Court queries, the conduct shown by SHO concerned was evasive, thus, he was issued a show-cause notice to explain why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him---District Police Officer (DPO), concerned was also directed to appear before the Court along with the complete record of the said criminal case---On the next date of hearing, the DPO appeared before the Court and filed his report---Record of the case reflected that aSI arrested the detenu on 13.02.2024 at 6:00 p.m. and produced him before the area Magistrate on the same day at 8:00 p.m. in a slipshod manner as the case before the High Court was fixed on 14.02.2024---Thus, it was seemingly done to legalize the custody of the detenu to avoid the legal consequences of keeping someone in illegal custody and to defeat the directions issued by the Court for the production of the detenu---according to the report of DPO, the detenu was lodged in District Jail on 13.02.2024 but the report of the Superintendent of that jail reflected that the detenu was received in the prison on 14.02.2024 at 7:10 p.m., meaning thereby that on 14.02.2024 the detenu was in the police custody but he was not produced before the Court---When confronted with such state of affairs, the DPO pledged before the Court to hold an independent inquiry to expose the illegalities committed by his subordinate Police Officials---Later, District Police Officer appeared before the Court and stated that during the fact-finding inquiry, it was proved that the detenu remained in illegal custody and apprised the Court that the detenu had been discharged from the said criminal case and strict action was initiated against the delinquent Police Officials involved in keeping the detenu in illegal custody, which would be concluded expeditiously---Show cause notice issued to the Station House Officer, Police Station concerned was withdrawn, leaving the matter to be dealt with by the internal mechanism of accountability in the police department---Petition was disposed of accordingly.

MUHAMMAD IMRAN vs INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE art — 2024 PLD 626 LAHORE-HIGH-COURT-LAHORE

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