Local residents of the area also approached GOR police and informed that it was in fact a matrimonial issue and not a criminal one as portrayed by the Multan policemen. -File Photo

HYDERABAD GOR police here on Monday detained four policemen of Multan district and seized their official weapons for unlawfully picking up a couple from the jurisdiction of Hyderabad police on Sunday night.

A local court, however, set at liberty the couple, Mureed Hussain and Afshana, when produced before it on Monday.

The court has rejected a transit remand application of the Multan police on the ground that the whole process lacked the required legal formalities.

The court has also ordered GOR police to lodge an FIR of young woman, Afshana, if a cognisable offence is made out and she approaches police for registration of the same.

The formal arrest of the Multan policemen depends upon the FIR to be registered by Afshana. But she did not approach GOR police for registration of a case till filing of this report.

The saga began on Sunday night when a four-member Jalalpur Peer Wala police party led by sub-inspector Safdar Siddique, in civvies, raided a house in Bengali colony in the jurisdiction of GOR police station, apprehended Mureed Hussain and his wife Afshana, and separated them in order to shift them later to Punjab along with her brother, Hasnain, and other relatives in a van.

Multan police did not have any permission of the Punjab home department or any court order to arrest Mureed Hussain in the said FIR which was lodged last year in November and was charge-sheeted last month.

Mureed married Afshana on Feb 2, 2009.When Multan police brought Mureed Hussain to GOR police station for making an entry, all the relevant facts come to the fore.

Local residents of the area also approached GOR police and informed that it was in fact a matrimonial issue and not a criminal one as portrayed by the Multan policemen.

The matter was reported to Hyderabad DPO Javed Alam Odho and he tried to speak to senior officers of Multan police but failed to contact them.
 
However, on the directives of GOR police, Multan police coordinated with girl's family members who had reached near Hala by that time. They were made to return to Hyderabad.

The girl was sent to Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women Centre in Cantonment area while Mureed Hussain remained in police custody.

She told journalists that her brother had put the Holy Quran in her lap and forced her to give statement in his favour.

But she rejected and said she had married Mureed Hussain of her own free will and had not been kidnapped.

On Monday, sub-inspector of Jalalpur Peer Wala police's SIP, Safdar Siddique, submitted an application before the court of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate-IX, seeking a transit remand of the man in the robbery case while GOR police station SHO Ibrahim Shah filed his report disputing contents of the sub-inspector.

The SHO said the Multan police had not had any permission of the home department or any other court order for arresting Mureed Hussain and that according to girl, she had married him of her own free will.

The court recorded Afshana's statement under Section 164 Cr. PC in which she narrated all the facts of her case.

She refused to go with her family and said her husband had been tortured by the police during the raid. Later, she and her husband spoke to media and blamed an MPA, Naghmana Mushtaq, for their ordeal. The couple demanded protection.

The court rejected the transit remand application of the Multan police and released Mureed Hussain after submission of a Rs50,000 personal bond.

The court also permitted his wife that she could lodge an FIR to what had happened to her since Sunday and ordered GOR police to lodge her case if a cognisable offence is made out in her statement.

Meanwhile, four policemen and Hasnain were detained by Hyderabad police for the time being. 'We are waiting for Afshana to turn up at the police station to lodge her FIR.

But we cannot keep them in custody indefinitely. Their official guns and a vehicle were lying with police.

He said technically the Multan policemen should have contacted the police officials concerned along with a Punjab home department order and made an entry.