A lower court of Islamabad on Wednesday rejected the request of prosecution for further physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Shahbaz Gill and sent him to jail on judicial remand.
The Islamabad Police produced accused Shahbaz Gill before the court of Judicial Magistrate Malik Aman after expiry of his physical remand, and requested for his (Gill’s) seven days more physical custody to complete the investigation process.
Special Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi informed the court that the police had not wasted even a single moment and investigated the accused on daily basis. The police needed further custody of the accused as they had to conduct his polygraph test from Lahore. He said the police had examined Gill’s phones and four USBs, besides carrying out search of his room during the last two-day physical remand. The prosecution, however, still required answers of few questions from the accused and also his main mobile phone was yet to be recovered.
The judge asked whether the prosecution had not requested for the polygraph test of the accused in the last remand. The prosecutor answered in ‘no’, saying they had rather requested it in the remand which was suspended. To a court’s query, Rizwan Abbasi said that they would get conducted the polygraph test from Islamabad if it were possible. He said the investigation was still incomplete as some recoveries and details about the other accused were pending. He said in the weapon case, the police themselves had requested the court to send the accused to jail. The progress in the investigation process during the two-day remand was available.
The judge remarked that the court of Additional Sessions Judge Zeba Chaudhry had also granted a two-day physical remand of the accused, besides the 48 hours remand given by his court. Whether there was a way left for him to grant more remand, he asked.
Rizwan Abbasi read out the verdict of Judge Zeba Chaudhry and said that the court had not said that it was giving the last opportunity to the police to complete investigation. He prayed the court to grant further seven-day custody of the accused to the police.
Shahbaz Gill’s counsel Faisal Chaudhry contended that the police had raided his room in the Parliament Lodges. The prosecution every time talked about the recovery of a mobile phone whenever it requested for the remand, while the police had recovered four mobile phones
He said the prosecution even did not know that whether the polygraph test was available in Islamabad or not. He alleged that the police had done nothing except torturing his client in the last 16 days, while opposing the request of further physical remand. He prayed the court to send his client to jail on judicial custody.
Gill’s lawyer Ali Bukhari claimed that his client had no criminal history.
After listening to arguments from both sides, the court rejected the prosecution’s request for further seven-day remand of Gill and sent him to jail on judicial remand.
