HYDERABAD, June 6: The Hyderabad circuit bench of the Sindh High Court on Wednesday granted bail to former DIG operations of Mirpurkhas range, Rana Salimullah Khan, for a sum of Rs200,000 in a case of house trespass lodged against him at Khipro police station.

Khipro police had lodged a case (FIR No 35/07) under sections 458 (house trespass), 506 (threats), 443 (misuse of power) PPC against the former DIG who was also present in the court with his counsel Salahuddin Panwhar.

The counsel questioned long delay of around eight months in registration of FIR against his client and said that except for section 458 (house trespass), which, too, was wrongly applied by the police, all the other sections were bailable.

Reading out contents of the FIR, the counsel said that the FIR had not explained eight months delay and did not even carry the signature of the complainant, Amirio Bheel.

He said that the former DIG was investigating the case of kidnapping of Mannu Bheel's family members when he was suspended. There was no denying the fact that two girls Rai Baj and Jama had identified the ex-DIG during an identification parade and his client, too, had not denied it because he had himself produced them in the Supreme Court in connection with Bheel's case before DNA tests proved they were not his daughters.

The complainant and the prosecution witness Allah Dino Bheel did not identify him in court on May 21, he said and added that the ex-DIG was arrested on May 14 in the premises of Supreme Court when he was attending suo motu proceedings of Manu Bheel case.

He said that he was brought to Karachi in a special plane and then shifted to Nawabshah to be transported to Mirpurkhas where a case was pending against him at the Satellite Town police station.

The counsel claimed that the second FIR was lodged at the instance of DPO Sanghar Ajmal Magsi.

Assistant AG Rasheed Qureshi said while responding to a court query about delay in registration of FIR that the two girls were kept in illegal confinement for 39 days. Even Manu Bheel had denied they were his daughters, he added.

He charged that the former DIG staged the farce of the girls’ recovery just to show progress on the case because there had been no progress on the kidnapping case of Bheel’s family.

Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali directed police to produce Salimullah Khan in court on June 13 in connection with his application which was in fact his statement recorded by the first additional district judge of Mirpurkhas Mohammad Yamin Khan.

The SHC converted the application into a constitutional petition and dispensed with the presence of other police and jail officers including prosecution DSP, senior investigating officer police of Satellite Town, superintendent of Mirpurkhas jail and an official of Hyderabad jail.

The para-wise comments of DPO Sanghar and Mirpurkhas were filed by the state counsel. But defence counsel pointed out that reports of Anti-Corruption Establishment (ACE) and police reports of Tharparkar and Umerkot were not filed. He said that the reports were needed to be filed.

The court adjourned without fixing date hearing of another constitutional petition of former DIG, seeking quashment of case, lodged with Satellite Town police station.