TAXILA: Four police officials of the Wah Saddar police station were booked for misuse of power, illegal detention of a citizen and extortion.

Legal action was taken against the officials on the directives of the local court.

The four police officials had on the night of January 9 raided the house of Hameed Ullah, a resident of Jameelabad in Taxila, who had just returned from abroad.

The four officials, identified as constables Tajamal, Salahuddin, Safdar and Sarfaraz are said to have scaled the walls of the complainant’s house, misbehaved with the women inside and took 500 Saudi Riyals and Rs15,000 with them.

The officials also kept the complainant in detention for many days though no case was registered against him and subjected him to torture. They later let Hameed go after receiving money from his family.

The complainant then went to the Taxila police in order to register a case and being denied this, he moved a petition in the court of an additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) under section 22-A for the registration of a case.

The court on Jan 21 directed the station house officer (SHO) of the Taxila police to register a case against the four officials but the SHO did not abide by the court directives.

The victim therefore went to the court for contempt of court proceedings against the SHO under section 155 (C) for the denial of court orders. The ADSJ then ordered the city police officer Rawalpindi and sub-divisional police officer Taxila to implement the court’s order for the registration of a case against the nominated police officials. He also ordered for departmental action against the SHO for not abiding by the court’s orders. The Taxila police then registered a case against the nominated police officials and started further investigations.

Separately, the Hassanabdal police said they busted a five-member robbers’ gang and recovered arms and ammunition from them.

According to police officials, a police party led by ASI Sajjad Haider had raided the house the robbers were staying in near Jablat Bridge on Pathgarh Road after receiving a tip-off and arrested five of the gang, who were later identified as Mohammad Sadeeq, Zabeeh Ullah, Mohammad Ibrahim, Riaz Ullah and Noman Ali. Four pistols, many rounds of ammunition and a dagger were also recovered from them.

Investigation officer Sajjad Haider said the gang was involved in a number of robbery cases in Hassanabdal.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2017