Punjab Inspector General of Police Abdul Karim says the investigation into the deaths of two women in police custody has been completed transparently, and that a final forensic report found nine different types of drugs in samples taken from both (Geo News).
He was speaking at the Central Police Office in Lahore alongside CCPO Bilal Siddique and DIG Investigation Syed Zeeshan Raza.
The findings
A medical board of doctors unanimously concluded that both women — identified as Amina and Anmol — died of cardiopulmonary arrest caused by combined drug toxicity.
The board found no evidence of physical torture, external injuries or wounds on either body.
A magisterial inquiry under Section 176 of the Code of Criminal Procedure was also conducted and found no evidence of police torture.
How they came to be in custody
Both women were brought to Township police station following action on a 15 emergency call.
The IGP said both had previous records in multiple cases involving alleged fraud and deception, with cases registered against them elsewhere.
What the findings do and do not settle
The forensic and magisterial conclusions address one question — whether the women were beaten — and answer it in the negative.
They do not address the question that a custodial death ordinarily raises, which is what the state owed two people in its care. Nine drugs in the system of a person taken into a police station is a description of someone who needed urgent medical attention. Whether that was recognised, sought or provided is not covered by a finding that nobody hit them.
Nor has it been stated when the women were detained, how long they were held before they died, whether either was examined by a doctor while in custody, or whether any officer faces disciplinary proceedings.
Why custodial deaths are examined this way
A magisterial inquiry under Section 176 is mandatory in Pakistan when a person dies in police custody. It exists precisely because the police cannot be the sole investigators of a death that occurred inside their own station.
In this instance both the forensic examination and the magisterial inquiry were announced together, by the police, at a police press conference. The reports themselves have not been published.
