Ex-cops accused of blackmailing

Report reveals misuse of phones seized from arrested people

BAHAWALPUR:

The Special Branch has revealed in a report that several former police officials in Bahawalpur were involved in blackmailing and harassing citizens.

According to sources, the secret report was prepared for the Additional IG.

The report stated that the officials seized mobile phones of arrested citizens, made false accusations against them and blackmailed them on the instructions of a former DPO of Bahawalpur.

It alleged that the acts were done at the behest officials who had also registered false cases of using Ice and other drugs against employees of the Islamia University.

Moreover, a man was accused of receiving bribes for facilitating postings of SHOs.

It was revealed that the suspect, Abdullah had received Rs2.2 million in December 2020 from the driver of a truck carrying 140kg of hashish, who had been caught in it in the area of Nowshera police station. Abdullah was also accused of stealing 20kg of hashish from the truck.

The report showed that in 2021, Baghdad Al-Jadeed police sent 38 dry batteries worth Rs6 million to Abdullah's house on the direction of DPO Amir Taimur.

It also alleged that the suspect had received Rs300,000 from a man last year to get registered a fake drug case.

A judicial commission headed by Justice Sarfraz Dogar has bene formed on the request of the chief minister of Punjab to look into the case of harassment.

Meanwhile, another woman addressed a press conference, accusing the suspects of barging into her home in July last year, manhandling her elderly parents and arresting her and her brother-in-law.

She said they were taken to a CIA police office, where they were allegedly stripped naked and subjected to sexual and physical violence while recording their ordeal.