A housing society management was found filling a storm drain and carving out plots for further sale.
Police have registered a case against the officials of a housing society, including the owner, and booked two nominated suspects for building a wall over a storm drain in an attempt to grab the land on Monday.
According to the police, filling of the natural seasonal nullah would cause urban flood in case of heavy rain or in case the spillways of Rawal Dam were opened.
Koral police station ASI Muhammad Malik stated in the first information report (FIR) registered under section 432/34 of Pakistan Penal Code that he was on patrol with his team when they saw suspicious activity going on at Street-17 of Ghauri Town Phase-I.
When the police reached the site they saw the labourers constructing a wall. The workers started running away, however, two of them were apprehended by the police. The detained people identified themselves as Khairul Amaan and Hassam Daud.
ASI Malik said that police witnessed that the storm drain was narrowed with sand filling. Amaan told the police that they were hired by Green Spire Company’s owner Chaudhry Muhammad Usman and Director Company Imran Aslam Totla.
Daud said that he worked as a surveyor in Ghauri Town Phase VII and was overseeing the filling work on directions of Usman. He added that Usman and Totla were constructing a wall over the storm drain so that more space for plotting could be obtained.
ASI said in the FIR that the storm drain in Ghauri Town was the only drainage channel for rainwater and water from Rawal Dam and its blockage could cause flooding in the area.
The police official stated that the opening of spillways of Rawal Dam would result in a flood in the area. The locals informed The Express Tribune that builders and developers have been filling the natural waterway for a long time.
The natural drain has been filled and flattened in the eastern part of Ghauri Town Phase-I and sold out to people in shape of plots.
Requesting anonymity, a senior police official told The Express Tribune that members of Ghauri Town's land mafia surrounded Koral police station and tried to blackmail the police for dismissal of the case.
However, he asserted that the investigation in the case would be carried out on merit. Sources added that over a dozen cases were already registered against the suspects in the same police station in which the investigations were under way.
When contacted, Green Spire owner Chaudhry Usman said, “We had received a request from the locals that the wall of the rain drain had collapsed and we were rebuilding it.”
Regarding the case filed by ASI Malik that the drain was filled to be sold as plots, Usman said, “Police register case even at the request of a street vendor because they could make us pay Rs500,000 to Rs600,000 to get out of the case.”
Green Spire Director Imran Aslam, the other main accused in the case, said that they were constructing a wall along the storm drain on the request of residents. The wall has already been contructed in Ghauri Town Phase I, Phase III, Phase IV and Phase IV. When asked why the police had registered a case, he said that the police officers were demanding higher ‘fee’.
He said, “Police are on the take from the builders of the city, but this particular ranker-officer is demanding a one kanal plot, which we did not accept.”
When The Express Tribune asked the officer concerned about the allegations of Usman and Aslam, he said there are more than 14 cases against this land mafia, but they never spoke up. “Now that they are facing a case on merit, the land grabbers have started levelling false allegations against police,” he said adding that he would file a case of slander against Usman and Aslam.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 12th, 2021.
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