Inquiry ordered against police high-handedness

Cantt police detain ‘suspects’ out of jurisdiction, demand money for release

RAWALPINDI:

Taking serious notice of minting money from the heirs of some alleged criminals, the Punjab police chief has ordered the Internal Accountability Division (IAD) of the department to hold a departmental inquiry against the officials of three Rawalpindi police stations.

The inquiry was ordered after it came to the notice of the police authorities that the Cantonment police allegedly picked some ‘criminals’ involved in incidents of robbery and theft from a hotel situated in the ambit of the Priwadhai police station, bargained with their families and upon being exposed handed over the accused to the police concerned in mutual connivance.

A high-level inquiry team led by Faisalabad IAD SSP Rana Arshad is conducting an inquiry involving the SHOs and other staff of the Cantt, Westridge and Pirwadhai police stations.

A senior police officer, who wished not to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media, told The Express Tribune the IGP was informed that Cantt police raided the hotel in Pirwadhai police limits without bringing the matter to the notice of the concerned police authorities, took four suspects into custody and shifted them to their police station.

The families of the suspects reached the hotel in search and found them taken away by some cops representing the Cantt police with the help of the CCTV footage. They contacted Cantt SHO SI Hasnain who said that the accused are involved in thefts and crimes. After some time the police contacted the relatives of the detained suspects and demanded money for their release. An audio recording clip also came to surface regarding the conversation.

When the matter was made public and no case was detected at the Cantt police station, the police immediately handed over the suspects to the Westridge police overnight. Keeping in view the sensitivity of the situation, the Westridge police formally arrested the accused the next day and sent them to jail for an identification parade.

According to the senior officer, the matter came to the notice of Rawalpindi City Police Officer Khalid Hamdani and SSP Operations Hafiz Kamran Asghar who suspended the Cantt SHO after conducting a preliminary inquiry and issued him a charge sheet.

The inquiry team recorded the statements of the SHOs and other officials of three police stations and other concerned persons. The identification parade of the accused in the cases of the Westridge police station has also been completed. A detailed report will be prepared after all statements and will be sent to the IGP through the office of the Additional IG IAD Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2024.