HYDERABAD, Dec 19: The police have released two alleged robbers despite being identified by the complainant, Tariq Mehmood, before a judicial magistrate during an identification parade.

The complainant himself is an official of a law enforcing agency.

The investigation police officer, Amir Kakakhel, had arrested Naveed and Tariq Pathan from the Pathan Colony in a robbery case in which a rangers’ official, Tariq Mehmood, was deprived of Rs36,000 at the Pathan Colony bus stand near the Market police station.

Mehmood had identified the two accused before th judicial magistrate-II on Dec 4.

The magistrate, in his order, had also written that Mehmood had identified the two accused when he was called to identify those who had robbed him.

Yet the police released the two accused under Section 497 of the CrPC, saying that there was no additional witness of the case and that the complainant was the lone witness.

The supervising investigation officer, Jameel Ahmed, who looks after the investigation sections of three police stations including Market, Fort and City, said that the identification parade, conducted by the SIP, Amir Kakakhel, was wrong and incorrect.

He said that the robbery was committed in broad day light near the bus stand in Pathan colony, adding that a number of shops were located in the general area.

He informed that the case had been transferred from Amir Kakakhel to another ASI, who had made on-the-spot inquiries but no one had corroborated the statement of the complainant.

Ahmed said that there were a number of contradictions in the statement of the complainant, adding that at first he had claimed that the robbers were beardless and had not taken away his brief case but later he had told police that the accused had beard and had taken away his brief case.

It was learnt that the police had also recorded statements of three other witnesses - Dost Mohammad Pathan, Aftab Ali Rind and Mazhar, who had said that the accused were with them at the time when the robbery had occurred.

Naveed and Tariq operate buses on the Sehwan- Dadu route whereas their rivals operate a coach service from the Pathan Colony bus stand.

A scuffle had occurred during Ramazan outside the Zahir Shah Mosque between the accused and their rivals.

Both of the accused, Naveed and Tariq Pathan, had fled from the police custody.