Juvenile justice system act violated by SHO: NCRC

News Reporter
ISLAMABAD : The National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC) took notice of the alleged custodial torture inflicted upon two minor boys by Station House Officer, G-9 Police Station. In this regard, a hearing was held at NCRC where the complainants Imaan Mazaari, Farhat Ullah Babar, District Prosecutor, SSP-Operations, the respondent, SHO G-9 Markaz Police Station, Advocate Adil Aziz Qazi, Chairman Human Rights Committee, Islamabad Bar Council appeared before the Commission.
The complainant, Imaan Mazhari alleged that she was present at the police station for a completely unrelated matter when she heard the screams of the minor boys from the retiring room of the SHO and witnessed him inflicting torture upon them.
The respondent, SHO G-9 Police Station categorically denied all the allegations against him and stated that the complainant has misunderstood construction noise as ‘screams’ whereas the SSP-Operations had denied the detention of any minor in the initial hearing. However, Police Inquiry Report found that there are seven credible witnesses against the SHO, and SHO failed to produce a single witness against the allegation.
It further says that when SHO was asked as to why he did not clear himself that there was no detainee inside the room then and there to which he could not give any reasonable or logical answer. In this regard, the representative of IGP ICT informed the Commission that after inquiry, the SHO has been penalised by demoting him to a lower rank.
The Commission questioned if no such incident had taken place and custodial torture is being denied, then why was a penalty imposed on the accused officer? While inquiring about the presence of victims, it was informed that NCRC’s summons was delivered at the residential address however victims were not present which also explains the fear of victims taking part in proceedings.