Negligent investigation: Action recommended against four cops

The fifth official, an ASI, has been arrested for sexually assaulting a complainant.

FAISALABAD:

An inquiry into a woman’s sexual assault complaint against an assistant sub inspector on Friday found the suspect guilty as charged and four other policemen negligent and recommended disciplinary action against them.

The inquiry led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Lahore Major (retd) Mubasshar Ullah concluded that a deputy superintendent of police, Alam Sher Rajoka (of Batala Colony Circle police), was not fit for the office and should be demoted to the rank of an inspector .

It recommended that two inspectors and a clerk of D-Type Colony police station– Inspector SHO Haji Umar Hayat, investigation officer Hafiz Javaid Ahmad and Babar Ali – should be dismissed from service with immediate effect.

The fifth official found guilty in the inquiry, ASI Muhammad Abbas, is the suspect in the sexual assault case and already under arrest.

The inquiry was initiated on a directive of Punjab Police Inspector General (IG) after Shumaila Bibi*’s complaint about sexual assault by ASI Abbas was reported in the press.

ASI Abbass had been arrested over a month ago on order of a sessions court. The woman had approached the court after police refused to register her complaint against the ASI.

She had accused the ASI of sexually assaulting her in a sugarcane field on August 10, 2011. She said the ASI had tricked her into accepting a ride home.

She said she had been called to the police station by the ASI to identify four men arrested for beating her and trying to kidnap her two days ago on August 8, 2011, near Shabnum cinema on Samundri Road.

She said the ASI had refused to let her leave the police station, saying that he would himself drop her home on his way home from work. “He said law and order situation in the area was not satisfactory,” she said.

The woman’s complaint against five men, one of them related to her former husband, of beating her and attempting to kidnap her on August 8, 2011, was earlier registered at the D-Type police on a directive issued by an additional sessions judge. She had identified three of the suspects as Arshad, a resident of Chak 34-GB, Abdur Rehman and Muhammad Jameel. She had alleged that Abdul Rehman, brother of her former husband Suleman, had hit her with a gun when she resisted his attempt to abduct her.

She said the attack was meant to pressure her into withdrawing a petition against her former husband for maintenance allowance. She said she had gotten court’s stay orders against her ex-husband’s attempt to transfer his property in the name of his brother.

She said the suspects had fled on seeing passersby approaching them on hearing her cries for help.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2012.