Lahore manhole tragedy: Five suspects sent on physical remand

• Company gave Rs10m cheque to victims’ family: court told.
• Murtaza was pressurised to confess he killed both: inquiry.
• Departmental action recommended against police officers.
  

LAHORE: A court in Lahore approved a four-day physical remand of five suspects — including a project manager of a company working at Data Darbar extension project — in the case of a mother and daughter who died after falling into a manhole in Punjab’s capital city.

Police produced the handcuffed suspects before Judicial Magistrate Shafqat Abbas and sought a 14-day physical remand for questioning.

The woman, Sadia, along with her 10-month-old daughter, Rida Fatima, died after falling into a manhole near Bhati Gate in the city on Wednesday.

In response to the incident, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz ordered the dismissal and arrest of officials, including the project director, project manager, and safety in charge of the ongoing construction project in the area.

During Saturday’s hearing, the counsel representing the project director said that the incident was tragic, and his clients were not involved. He told the judicial magistrate that the company had given a Rs10 million cheque to the victims’ family as humanitarian compensation.

After hearing the arguments, Judicial Magistrate Abbas sent the suspects on a four-day physical remand.

Meanwhile, section 316 of the Pakistan Penal Code has been incorporated into the FIR lodged earlier on the complaint of the deceased woman’s father.

Initially, the Operations Police had not invoked Section 316 in the case, but authorities later confirmed that, besides Section 322, Section 316 has now been applied.

The DIG investigation said that with the inclusion of Section 316, police will be able to assist in presenting the challan of the accused.

Separately, an internal accountability inquiry has found Superintendent of Police (SP) Bilal and Station House Officer (SHO) Zain guilty of torturing Ghulam Murtaza, the husband of the deceased woman.

He was allegedly forced and pressured to confess that he had killed his wife and daughter, and that their deaths were not the result of falling into the manhole.

The inquiry committee was formed after Murtaza alleged that the SP and SHO subjected him to torture and repeatedly pressured him to admit that he had killed his wife.

“They kept telling me to say that I committed the murder,” he told Brackly News on Friday, and added that the police wanted to forcibly extract a confession from him

According to the report, the two officers took Murtaza to Bhati police station, kept him in illegal detention for five and a half hours, and pressured him to accept responsibility for the deaths of his wife and daughter.

It added that evidence, including CCTV footage from the SHO’s office, confirmed the mistreatment and that the officers did not question the relatives accompanying Murtaza and unprofessionally handled the entire case.

The inquiry recommended departmental action against both officers. The report has been submitted to the Punjab IG, who will forward it to the chief minister.