Investigation of 48 cases: 137 cops asked to show cause for 8-year delay

Complainant in gang rape case accused of forging transfer of ownership documents to register stolen vehicles.

FAISALABAD:

As many as 137 officials of Sargodha Road and Civil Lines police stations were on Saturday issued show cause notices by City Police Officer Bilal Siddique Kamyana over failure to complete investigation in a sexual assault case as well as 48 other cases (of forging ownership documents of vehicles to register other stolen vehicles) pending for eight years.

Inspector Mian Amir Waheed, the CPO’s spokesman, said the officials were directed to file their replies to the office of the CPO within a week. He said action would be taken against those who failed to file their replies.

The show cause notices follow suo motu hearing by the Supreme Court of Sonia Naz’s eight-year-old gang-rape complaint against former SP (Investigation) Abdullah Khalid, Inspector Jamshed Iqbal and their several accomplices.

The CPO’s spokesman said 48 cases against Naz’s husband and others had come to the notice of the CPO during an inquiry into the matter following the suo motu notice.

The officials issued notices included Muneer Ahmad, Ghulam Farooq, Ghazanfar Gujjar, Abdur Razzaq, Jamshed Iqbal and Malik Shahid. Iqbal, one of the accused in Naz’s complaint, is serving at a Toba Tek Singh police station. His previous posting was with Rojana police.

In her complaint to the apex court, Naz had stated that the police were reluctant to prosecute the suspects, adding that the cases against her husband, the Excise and Taxation Department worker, were meant to pressure her into withdrawing the gang rape case. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had directed the RPO, the CPO and the SSP (Investigation) to complete the investigation in the case and submit a report to the SC.

Under the Criminal Procedure Code, the police are required to complete investigation of a case and submit it to a court for prosecution within 14 days of the registration of an FIR.

Speaking to The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity, one of the inspectors who were issued a notice said he had served in the Civil Lines police station only for 28 days in 2004.

He said he had to look into many cases during that period.

The official said transfers and postings from one station to another before the two-year stipulated period affected investigation of cases. He said he had been transferred seven times in 2011 alone.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 8^th, 2012.