Illegal detention: Cops accused of demanding money for man’s release

Cousin claims Mehmood has been in custody since last Sunday.

ISLAMABAD:

A man’s family has alleged that a Shalimar police official has illegally detained him and is now demanding a bribe for his release.

The allegation dents the credibility of the capital’s police force which has been trying of late to liaison with the public through coordination committees and awareness campaigns to improve citizen protection.

Asad Mehmood, who works at a shop in Karachi Company, was picked up from there on Sunday afternoon, according to Mehmood’s cousin who was  present  when he was taken away.

The cousin said three men in civvies, one of whom identified himself as Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Iqbal, came to the shop and asked for Mehmood and took him away in a white Suzuki Mehran. The ASI allegedly told the cousin to contact the Shalimar police “I went to the police station and waited there for two hours. They appeared with Mehmood in a car but when I tried to approach them, I was pushed away and told to speak to ASI Iqbal,” the cousin said.

He said the family is worried the police might torture Mehmood, who is in his early 20s.



Since last Sunday, Shalimar police have not recorded the detention. On Friday, police officials at the station denied the arrest. There is no record of the man being in custody at the police station, according to the police. The Karachi Company area falls under the jurisdiction of the Margalla Police Station.

The police are required to arrest a person if they want to detain him under the Criminal Procedure Code’s Section 167. The arrested person has to be produced in court within 24 hours. The past five days, the family said Iqbal has been in touch. The cousin said Iqbal told them Mehmood was wanted for several robberies.

Most recently, the policeman allegedly met one of Mehmood’s cousins on Thursday evening to demand money.

“He said if we give him Rs50,000, he would register a case against Mehmood but get him released on the first or second court hearing,” the cousin said. This accusation is particularly damning because it suggests that the police can detain anyone and blackmail the family. The cousin said plainclothesman outside the Shalimar Police Station led them to believe Mehmood was being kept in a room in G-11.

A member at the I-9 Police Station police-public coordination tried to intervene upon the family’s request, but the ASI refused to talk.

Iqbal denied he picked up Mehmood, when he was contacted by The Express Tribune. Shalimar Station House Officer Qaisar Niaz hung up the phone when he was questioned about the issue and did not respond afterwards.

The Islamabad Police, maligned for its inefficient response to the March 3 district court attacks, had recently been in the news for illegal detentions. But unlike Mehmood’s family’s allegations, the men were held at the police stations. A villager was detained by the Bhara Kahu Police Station on March 29 in connection with a gang rape case but later recovered after a local court intervened.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 12^th, 2014.