The Additional District and Sessions Judge (South), Abdul Razzaq, has directed the Capital City Police Officer to determine if the police had arrested an innocent man in a case of extra-judicial killing.
The judge, citing the arguments of the defence counsel that the Station Investigation Officer, Yaseen, had been negligent and reckless and that ASI Ehsanullah was not involved in the extra-judicial killing of Abdul Sattar Baluch, ordered the CCPO to submit his report on this issue within a week.
ASI Ehsanullah Khan, who had been working in the ACLC department of Sindh police, was arrested on 31 May on the charge of being a member of the CIA team that had raided the house of Abdul Sattar Baluch, a Lyari resident, and subsequently tortured him to death.
When the court inquired from the complainant’s counsel, Omar Sial, what he had to say on the defence version that the case had been one of mistaken identity, the counsel replied that he did not want to see an innocent man suffer in jail.
However, the arrest had been made by the police, and there must have been some grounds for the police to say that Ehsanullah Khan was involved in the murder of Abdul Sattar Baluch, he added.
The complainant’s lawyer suggested that the CCPO Karachi be directed to hold an inquiry into this matter, a suggestion that was also supported by the deputy district public prosecutor.
The court, after hearing the two sides, passed an order directing the CCPO to have an inquiry done by an officer not below the rank of an SP and to submit the report by 14th of July. The hearing was then adjourned till the 17th of July.
