LAHORE: Amidst a wave of concern at releasing picture of a senior bureaucrat (facing graft charges) in a lockup, some police officers admit that sharing pictures of suspects in custody with media has no legal cover.

They, however, claim that the practice is considered quite helpful in achieving certain objectives such as “creating deterrence in society”.

“Another purpose of releasing pictures of suspects in custody is to show efforts of police to control crime,” said Additional Inspector General of Police (Legal) Abdul Rab while responding to Dawn’s query about the concern shown by the Lahore High Court at official release of the suspects’ pictures to media by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Bureaucrat’s case cause of concern

Justice Ali Baqar Najafi while hearing a petition of former LDA director general Ahad Khan Cheema against his arrest by NAB in a housing scam took exception to release of his pictures when his counsel had questioned which law allowed the bureau to release pictures of Mr Cheema standing in a lockup.

A NAB prosecutor had no legal provision to cite before the court but he said it was a common practice which is also adopted by police.

Speaking to Dawn, AIG (Legal) Abdul Rab claimed that sometimes they were compelled to release the pictures of the suspects in custody to create deterrence in society and offset the impact of media’s negative portrayal of police.

“Media on a daily basis report and display incidents of violence on news channels and it has become all the more important for police to counter negative portrayal by highlighting their achievements. Police have to release the pictures of those in custody to show that the law-enforcement agencies are putting in every possible effort to curb crime and bring the suspects to book,” he said.

He said police rules provide for release of a picture or sketch of an absconding suspect so that the public could help them in tracking him down.

SP (Legal) Rana Lateef corroborated the stance and said there was no provision in the law that allows police or any other LEA to release the picture or video of any suspect in their custody. “Besides, a video or picture doesn’t have any legal value and it’s up to court whether to accept or reject it as evidence,” he said.

He said courts had rejected pictures and videos as evidence many times in the past and preferred forensic examination.

Asked about the practice of issuing press releases to media with pictures and videos of the suspects at conferences, he said police had to show their performance through some channel and a press statement comes in handy. “It is necessary to offset the impact of casual reporting about crime and violence in society,” he said, adding that any such tool was not meant to tarnish anyone’s dignity or reputation.

He said there was apparently no provision in the law of releasing pictures and videos of the suspects involved in non-cognizable offence but it was not written clearly.

Under the Police Order 2002, the chapter II speaks about the responsibilities and duties of the police and its sub-section-4 Duties of police states: “(1) Subject to law, it shall be the duty of every police officer to (a) protect life, property and liberty of citizens; (b) preserve and promote public peace; and (c) ensure that the rights and privileges, under the law, of a person taken in custody, are protected...”.

Sharing his opinion, senior lawyer Asad Jamal says dignity of every citizen is guaranteed under the Constitution and pictures and video of any suspect in custody can’t be released to media without providing reasonable grounds. “Any such move without providing reasonable ground can tarnish anyone’s reputation and it’s against the Article 14 of the Constitution which protects dignity of a person,” he says.

“The law-enforcement agencies can issue picture or sketch of any suspect who is on the run to media under the intent of arrest, not to defame dignity,” he says.

Citing the example of the Kasur child abuse case, he says police had issued a sketch of the suspect after viewing CCTV footage and recording statements of people of the area so that it could help them in his arrest.

“Releasing the picture of a suspect leads to his media trial which is also violation of the Article 10A of the Constitution which provides right to fair trial,” he says.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018