Cops accused of pocketing money seized from beggars

Allegations have surfaced against police for allegedly misappropriating charity money recovered from professional beggars during an ongoing anti-begging operation.

Sources said the district police recently launched a crackdown across all five town divisions and 19 police stations, arresting 66 habitual beggars from various parts of the city.

Separate cases were registered against each of them. However, investigators failed to record or produce a single rupee of the money recovered from the beggars as evidence in any of the registered cases.

Sources claim that during the arrests and body searches, police confiscated charity and alms money that citizens had given to the beggars - but instead of submitting it as case property, the amount was allegedly embezzled.

The recovered money, intended to be listed in the case files, was neither documented nor deposited, raising questions about internal accountability.

Insiders further alleged that a portion of the misappropriated funds might have been spent to "clear" these baseless cases through the prosecution branch.

When contacted for comment, SP Lyallpur Town Abid Hussain Zafar denied any wrongdoing, stating that the money, mobile phones and other belongings recovered from beggars were handed over to their family members, while the accused were sent to jail and later granted bail.

He added that "there is no requirement to show recovery in such cases."