The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Thursday declared the body search of a woman by a policeman illegal and “against the norms of society.”
Heading the single-member bench, Justice Musarrat Hilali stated that only a female police officer could body search a female suspect.
The ruling came during the hearing of a bail petition filed by a female suspect who was arrested by the officials of Pishtakhara police station in a narcotics-related case on 6 September.
During the course of the hearing, Justice Mussarat observed that the Code of Criminal Procedure entitles a woman to ‘special treatment’ regarding body search.
“Section 52 of the CrPC provides that whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search should be made by another woman with strict regard to decency.”
“Under no circumstances, male police personnel shall actually touch the person of a woman for making search or arrest,” the ruling stated.
The police apprised the court that the woman had been arrested while standing on the roadside of the Ring Road in Peshawar with a shopping bag.
“We seized 3,280 grams of heroin from her after a detailed search,” the officials told the court.
The petitioner’s counsel, Umer Zafran, countered police claims and said that her client was falsely framed in a drug case. He said that the petitioner was six weeks pregnant and was a mother of three children.
“There was no female constable with the police team which claimed of recovering contraband from her possession,” the counsel continued, adding that that the petitioner was arrested on Peshawar’s Ring Road, which was a busy public place without a female constable.
The court remarked that the action by the police was against the norms and lacked decency.
“The question is how the petitioner, who is six weeks pregnant, was searched on the roadside where there was no prior information of her being involved in trafficking narcotics,” Justice Musarrat observed.
The court then accepted the bail plea of the suspect, directing her to submit two surety bonds of Rs. 100,000 each.