Extortion charges: Judicial remand of police officials extended

The cops used to blackmail young couples and extort money from them.

ISLAMABAD: A judicial magistrate on Saturday extended judicial remand of three police officials arrested for blackmailing and looting citizens for 14 days after police failed to submit challan in the case.

The suspects including Muhammad Nadeem, Aftab Ahmed, Jabar Hussain — who are all police officials — and Adnan Sajjad, who is a driver in the Cabinet Division, were arrested by Margalla police on June 5.

At least two separate cases have been registered against the officials at Margalla Police Station.

The first FIR was registered on June 3 after a man complained to the police that two police officials in uniform confined him in Sector F-8, saying they had the orders from the Interior Ministry to arrest him. The police officials searched and pressurised him and took away the Rs50,000 the man carried.

After taking Rs50,000, they told him that they would leave him only if he arranged them another Rs50,000. The man called his family but could not arrange Rs50,000.

“The man carried an expensive mobile phone and the officials took him to F-8 Markaz where they told him to sell his mobile phone and give them the money,” a police official told The Express Tribune.

The mobile phone, however, could not be sold and the officials left the man at Kashmir Highway and told him to get them Rs50,000 the next day.

In the morning, however, the victim approached the Margalla Police Station and lodged a complaint against the unidentified officials. The police and the victim identified the suspects with the help of CCTV cameras installed at some of the places the suspects took the victim to. An FIR was registered against the four on June 3 and they were arrested two days later.

Three of the suspects — Nadeem, Aftab and Adnan — were also booked in another FIR, registered on June 11, for extorting Rs15,000 from a young section officer. Police said the officer was visiting Centaurus Mall with his fiancée when the suspects caught them saying they would take them to the police station. They pressurised them and extorted Rs15,000 from him.

A police official said that the suspects used to blackmail young couples in parks and markets and would extort money from them.

He said one of the suspects was posted at parliament lodges while another was with DPD wing of the police.

He said the suspects during their physical remand, also confessed to their involvement in the crime.

On Saturday, the suspects were produced before Judicial Magistrate Jawad Hussain Adil at the expiry of their judicial remand. The judge extended the judicial remand for another fortnight after the police failed to produce challan in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2016.