The two-year-old thief

MULTAN: A Saddar station house officer (SHO) was suspended after he registered a theft case against a two-year-old child in Muzaffar Garh’s Alipur tehsil.

Nasruddin submitted an application with the Saddar police regarding the theft of gold ornaments and cash.

After the application was submitted against Ishtiaq, Shokat, Abdus Sattar and his two-year-old son Poni, police arrested the four people nominated in the case. The court accepted the bail of the accused until July 22, 2010.

The local court has summoned Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) Dildar to submit relevant records on July 17, 2010. Dildar said that SHO Din Muhammad Satoi had lodged the case before investigating the matter and even though it was common procedure to include all the names listed by the complainant, he should have looked into the matter.

“There is no excuse, given that the robbery incident took place four days ago on July 13, and Satoi had ample time to investigate the details,” he said.

SHO Satoi, who has now been suspended, said that the family had ‘replaced’ the boy.

“The child I originally mentioned in the case was four years old, he would help the gang loot the jewellery,” he said, adding that Ishtiaq had replaced the boy with a much younger one to ‘make him look like a fool.’

“The case against us is false,
Ishtiaq said, adding that Nasruddin and his family were involved in a feud, as the latter had already filed an abduction case against his family.

“He accused me and my brother of abducting his mother and when that case proved to be false he has now charged us with robbery,” Ishtiaq said.

ASI Dildar said that even if the SHO’s allegations of ‘child swapping’ proved true, this was not a valid excuse as a case could still not be registered against a four-year-old child. “We can’t send a four-year-old to prison for theft any more than we can send a two-year-old,” he said.

Muzaffargarh District Police Officer (DPO) suspended SHO Saddar Alipur Din Muhammad Satoi for registering the case against the two-year-old boy and has given charge to Mehmood Akbar.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 18^th, 2010.