A local court on Monday remanded the arrested station house officer (SHO) of Peshawar’s Gharbi (western) police station in police custody in a case pertaining to the reported death by suicide of a seventh class student.
The police produced Dost Muhammad before the court and requested his physical remand for questioning. Subsequently, the court approved a 3-day physical remand of the cop and directed the investigation officer to present him before it on the next hearing.
The police said the youngster was arrested from Peshawar bazaar after he indulged in a fight and a pistol was recovered from his possession. “He committed suicide inside a lock-up by strangulating himself using a piece of cloth,” a police official said, adding that they are investigating the entire episode.
The father of the seventh-grade student, Shahzaib, however, rejected the police claims and said that the cops had tortured his son and later hanged his body, claiming that he had committed suicide.
The SHO was taken into custody after Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mahmood Khan took serious notice over the death of the student by violence in police custody.
In a statement, the chief minister ordered a judicial inquiry into the incident. Mahmood Khan also sought report of the incident and directed the inspector general of police (IGP) to suspend the culprits involved in the heinous crime.
