Robbery?: Man held by police without FIR for five days

Complainant says a case is not being registered, police cite lack of evidence.

RAWALPINDI:

The Saddar Bairuni police have allegedly been holding a suspect in custody for five days but have not yet registered an FIR, as investigators are trying to determine the authenticity of the accusation.

While the police have been keeping Ali, 20, in illegal detention, the complainant, Haq Nawaz, has been running from pillar to post in a bid to get an FIR registered over a robbery at his house on Adiala Road, committed by three men on December 10.

“At night on December 10, three armed men with their faces covered entered my house and demanded we give them all our gold and cash. My wife gave 60 grams of gold jewellery to the intruders... during the ordeal, the face of one of the robbers was uncovered for a while,” Haq Nawaz told The Express Tribune.

She recognised the unmasked man as Ali, who lives in a nearby locality. During the robbery, my son came home and rang the doorbell. This scared the robbers and they fled from the house, the complainant said.

Following the incident, we called the police and pointed out that one of the robbers was Ali, who my wife recognised. The police raided his house and took Ali into custody, said Haq Nawaz.

“Investigation Officer Sub Inspector (SI) Muhammad Arif has called me time and again to the police station, saying that the boy was not involved in the robbery,” Haq Nawaz said.

He added that he was asked back to the police station on Friday evening, where he met Ali’s father. “The investigation officer insisted I negotiate with them and reach a compromise,” Nawaz claimed.

Disappointed with the conduct, Nawaz, a retired army official, said he complained to Regional Police Officer Muhammad Zubair on Saturday. Zubair forwarded his complaint to Saddar SP Waheed Khattak for inquiry.

Both SI Arif and Saddar Bairuni SHO Sohail Zafar termed Haq’s complaint as doubtful and underlined the need for further inquiry.

SHO Zafar, who had been serving at the police station since June last year, admitted that no FIR had been registered and Ali had been kept in police custody so that he could be interrogated.

SP Khattak expressed ignorance about the matter, but said he would look into it on Monday. On Ali’s detention, he said the matter would only become clear after an inquiry.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2012.