KARACHI: A 50-year-old man died under controversial circumstances on Saturday, as a rights activist termed his death a case of police torture while the law enforcers claimed that he was beaten to death by a group of shopkeepers at Cantonment railway station.

The body of Ghulam Sarwar Chandio was brought to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Saturday morning. He suffered multiple injuries to the head, said JPMC executive director Dr Seemin Jamali.

Talking to media at the hospital, rights activist Jibran Nasir along with the victim’s wife, son and other relatives said that it was a case of police torture.

He said that Chandio, originally from Rahim Yar Khan, was picked up by the Frere police and they demanded a Rs50,000 bribe from his family for his release. But within a few hours, his family came to know that his tortured body was lying in the JPMC, he added.

The victim’s wife, who works as a domestic helper in Clifton, told media that her husband left the house to go to Rahim Yar Khan, but they got a phone call from the police that he was in police custody.

The wife said she and her son visited the Frere police station, where the police demanded Rs50,000 for her husband’s release. However, she said that she did not see her husband there and later they were informed by the police that her husband died and the body was at the JPMC.

Police version

However, City SSP Dr Samiullah Soomro, who is also the officer in charge of South police, told Dawn that Chandio had gone to the Cantt station, where a scuffle broke out at about 3am between him and a shopkeeper who alleged that he had stolen his mobile phone from a place where people charged their cell phones.

The shopkeeper, identified as Rana Aslam, beat him up and in the meantime other shopkeepers and a constable of the Counter Terrorism Department, identified as Uzair, also gathered there and continued beating him.

“They continued beating him for four hours,” the SSP said, adding that the Frere police received a call on Madadgar-15 at 7am and they shifted Chandio to the JPMC, where he was pronounced dead.

He said that he had tasked Saddar SP Abdullah Ahmad to conduct an inquiry into the incident and ascertain the veracity of the allegations levelled by the family.

He made it clear that the victim was not a ‘robber’ as he did not possess any weapon.

He regretted that Mr Nasir did not take into consideration the “fact” that he was beaten by shopkeepers and was in their custody for four hours. He was already in a critical condition when the police took him into their custody, he added.

The SSP said that the CTD constable and shopkeeper Aslam were taken into custody and legal action would be taken against them.

Meanwhile, Frere SHO Chaudhry Saeed Akhtar denied that the police demanded any bribe.

He claimed that a scuffle had broken out at the station and Chandio’s head was hit against a shutter by the mob and he died due to excessive bleeding.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2018