FIR registration delay: A case of free lunches for Rawat police

A week after robbery, police yet to register case.

RAWALPINDI: The Rawat police have made two visits to a house in Bahria Town which was looted on June 23, but the only thing they seem to have investigated were the contents of the refrigerator.

Robbers allegedly made off with valuables worth Rs7.5 million from the house in Abu Bakar Block in the Rawat police area, but the police have still not registered an FIR.

Abid Ali, who has rented the house, says he had gone shopping with his family last Monday when the burglars struck. “We found clothes and files strewn across the floor and cupboards open when we returned.”

He said the robbers, who had broken into the house by breaking the ventilator at the rear of the house, took two laptops, two mobile phones, over 260 grams of gold, and car and property documents.

When informed, the police visited the house, inspected the crime scene and went back without registering a case. Ali has been going to and fro the police station for a week, but says the police will not register an FIR, giving him one pretext or the other.

“Police teams led by Sub-Inspector (SI) Shafique have visited my house and eaten lunch twice, but they aren’t registering a case,” Ali said.

The irony here may be that Rawalpindi City Police Officer (CPO) Humayun Bashir Tarar recently claimed he has directed all police stations to promptly register cases and investigate.

When contacted for comment, the SI said he was busy in a meeting and would talk later.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2014.