Cop arrested for murder of man he ‘arrested’

Factory owner has obtained pre-arrest bail, says the deceased may have committed suicide.

BAHAWALPUR:

Kotwali police have arrested an assistant sub inspector accused of beating to death a man he had arrested from Kasur in loan default and criminal intimidation cases.

Lender Dr Muhammad Aslam, the complainant in the two FIRs, is also nominated in the murder case registered after Muhammad Babur Tufail’s body was found hanging from a ceiling fan at a room in his factory.

Complainant Nusrat Bibi, widow of the deceased, and some family members had on Friday vandalised Kotwali police station in a demonstration against the police after they were informed of the death.

Nusrat Bibi said her husband had borrowed some money from Dr Aslam which he was repaying in installments. She said the deceased had missed some installments because of financial hardship.

The complainant alleged that Tufail was arrested from their home in Kasur and taken to Bahawalpur by ASI Abdul Waheed. She said the ASI had shown them no court warrants.

Talking to The Express Tribune, District Police Officer Sohail Habib Tajik said while the police had arrested the ASI, he was certain that Tufail was neither arrested by the police nor brought to Bahawalpur.

He said the ASI had neither denied nor accepted the allegation during interrogation at Kotwali station.

However, he said, he had ordered an inquiry into the incident and assigned the task to SP (Investigation) Azhar Hameed Gujjar, DSP (City) Arif Rasheed and DSP (Legal) Jameel Akhtar Chohan. The DPO said he had also suspended from service Kotwali police station house officer, Akram Shah.

He said the police were now waiting for the autopsy report. He said the report was expected after the Eid holidays.

Kotwali police have yet to arrest Dr Aslam who was granted a pre-arrest bail on Friday.

DPO Tajik said Aslam had denied the murder charge. “He believes Tufail committed suicide during his stay at his factory,” he said, “He says Tufail had come to visit him in Bahawalpur and was staying at the factory.”

The DPO quoted Aslam as saying that he had filed two complaints against Tufail but added that they had resolved their differences during the visit.

FIRs registered against Tufail on Aslam’s applications on August 6 and August 9 mentioned Sections 489-F (dishonestly issuing a cheque) and 406/506 (punishment for criminal breach of trust/ punishment for criminal intimidation), respectively. One of the FIRs stated that Tufail had refused to return a Rs4.5 million loan he obtained from Dr Aslam.

Tufail’s body had been recovered by a police team from Dr Aslam’s factory on Thursday night. They were called to the scene by employees who said the deceased had locked himself in the room and was not responding to the knocking at the door. The police said they had found the body hanging from a ceiling fan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 19^th, 2012.