Police officer suspended for taking bribes

Officer was found asking families for money to hand over the bodies at Jinnah hospital’s mortuary

KARACHI: A police officer was suspended for demanding bribes from the families of the young men who drowned at Sea View over the Eid holidays. A departmental inquiry has also been initiated against sub-inspector Altaf. 

The policeman was sent to the Jinnah hospital’s mortuary along with the bodies so that the legal formalities could be carried out. He was, however, found asking the families for money to hand over the bodies. The families claimed that the officer was demanding Rs1,500. “He told me that each family has to pay Rs1,500 to receive the body as it is a legal process,” said Hammad Khan, who had come to the mortuary to receive his brother’s body. “I paid him as I had no idea whether or not it was bribe or money for the legal process.” As the number of complaints grew, AIG Ghulam Qadir Thebo suspended Altaf and started an inquiry under District South police chief DIG Khalique Shaikh. “It is a shameful act if he [officer] actually did this,” said Thebo. “But it is a matter of an individual and not of the entire department.” The police officer will face action if he is found guilty.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 1^st, 2014.