• Prosecution claims Haleem didn’t cooperate in investigation.
• Haleem Adil Sheikh alleges he was tortured, strangled in police station.
• Says “I am not a terrorist but was isolated in terrorists’ cell for 10 days.”

KARACHI: A court on Tuesday rejected a plea seeking physical remand of Leader of the Opposition in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh in a land-grabbing case.

The court sent Sheikh into judicial custody while directing the anti-encroachment officials to submit the case challan at the next hearing.

Sheikh, who is also a PTI leader, has been under arrest for over a month for allegedly grabbing 25 acres of government land. He alleges that he was tortured and strangled in detention.

During the hearing, the court inquired from the investigation officer (IO) on why he held Sheikh by his collar.

The IO responded in the negative and said that he could only grab Sheikh’s shirt to save him as he was falling.

Sheikh’s lawyer maintained that the FIR against the politician was lodged by a tapedar and there is not a single private witness in the case.

“My client is being linked to land grabbers. The leader of the Opposition is not arrested without the Assembly speaker’s permission,” he said.

While giving arguments, the prosecutor said that a notice was served to Haleem after the registration of the case against him but he didn’t cooperate in the investigation. He requested the court to remand Haleem into police custody for investigating strong evidence against him.

‘Tortured, strangled at police station’: Haleem Adil Sheikh

A video of Sheikh from the hearing surfaced on Twitter where he was seen alleging that he was tortured and strangled in jail.

“They didn’t give me a single thing to eat for two days. I am not a terrorist but was isolated in the terrorists’ cell for 10 days,” Sheikh said in the video while showing a bruise on his leg.

He said that he has a rod in his leg due to which he has a puss infection, but is not being given medical treatment for it.

Sheikh protested that he was arrested from prison in a new case.

Haleem Adil Sheikh arrested from Jamshoro

The Anti-corruption Establishment, Sindh (ACE) had arrested Sheikh in a property transfer case on July 27.

The PTI leader went to the anti-corruption’s office in Jamshoro to record his statement in a case pertaining to allegedly raising a loan from a bank on the basis of fake property documents.

The institution, as he recorded the statement in the office of Deputy Director ACE Zeeshan Memon, arrested him, according to sources.

This was the second time in the same month that the ACE arrested Sheikh in the case.

The ACE had arrested Sheikh on July 6 from Lahore, but later, the Lahore High Court (LHC) ruled the detention of the opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly to be “unlawful” and granted him protective bail.