SHC orders lodging of counter-FIR
Thursday, February 04, 2010
By Jamal Khurshid
Karachi
The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Wednesday ordered lodging a counter FIR in a case involving the killing of the alleged gangster, Abdul Rehman Baloch, along with his three associates in a police shootout in the Steel Town police limits in August last year.
The court issued the order on petitions filed by Baloch's widow and family members of his associate, late Aurangzaib, seeking judicial inquiry into the extra-judicial killing of Rehman Baloch and his three associates and registration of an FIR against police personnel.
Baloch�s widow, Farzana, submitted that her late husband enjoyed the reputation of a social worker in Lyari and he had established peace committees, schools, parks and clinics for the benefit and welfare of the area people. The petitioner submitted that Baloch had gone to Turbat in connection with a business meeting along with Aurangzaib Baloch, President of Transport Association; Nazeer Baloch, his business partner, and Aqeel Ahmed Baloch, a shoe dealer.
She alleged that Baloch and his companions were arrested by the police while they were coming to Karachi and added that their phone contact with their family members was cut off and they were later killed in a fake encounter in the Steel Town area.
The petitioners counsel, Abdul Mujeeb Pirzada and Khalid Shah, said that the home secretary, IG police and CCPO appeared to have connived with SP Chaudhry Aslam Khan, who took part in the alleged police encounter, and failed to conduct any inquiry into the shootout despite repeated demands by the relatives of the deceased.
The counsel submitted that the postmortem report of the deceased stated that they were fired upon from a range of four to five feet, which also excluded the possibility of an encounter as the same could never take place at such a point-blank range. The petitioners counsel prayed the court to order registration of an FIR on behalf of the relatives of the deceased and refer its investigation to DIG A D Khawaja.
The police inquiry report that was conducted by a team of senior police officers headed by DIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo was also produced before the court. However, the report denied the petitioners allegation and the inquiry committee submitted that the petitioners allegation of fake police encounter could not be proved after the probe.
The report said that the presence of SP Chaudhry Aslam was not found in the police encounter but he communicated the information to police inspector Asif Rauf who took part in the encounter.
The police said that the government had announced a bounty of Rs5 million on Baloch�s head and he was declared proclaimed absconder in several criminal cases.
The report also stated that Baloch�s associate Aurangzaib was arrested in an injured condition and Kalashnikov was recovered from his possession.
Provincial Police Officer and Capital City Police Officer also denied the allegations in the petition. IG Sindh submitted that the inquiry could not be referred to AD Khawaja as he had been transferred to the Intelligence Bureau.
The SHCs division bench headed by Chief Justice Sarmad Jalal Osmany observed that there was no law which prohibited registration of a counter FIR in an offence and ordered lodging an FIR. The judge directed the SHO Steel Town to appear before the Registrar of the SHC and record a statement vis--vis lodging of the FIR and to take action if cognizable offence was made out. The court, meanwhile, appointed DIG Bashir Memon to carryout investigation into the case after registration of the FIR.
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