March 17, 2003	Monday	Muharram 13, 1424

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JHANG, March 16: Victims of theft or robbery incidents have to go through a trial to get their complaints registered with police stations for the arrest of culprits and recovery of their stolen property.

The station house officers make no bones about their resistance to register complaints of crime against property.

According to an estimate, only 10 to 20 per cent cases of theft or robberies were recorded with the police stations. In some cases, the police start investigation without registering a formal FIR as required under the law. If the accused named in the application are some how arrested or the stolen property is recovered, which is a rarity, the police lodge FIR.

It is learnt that the victims, once refused by the relevant police stations, could rarely get a positive reply from the higher officials.

Consequently, the poor victims have to knock the judiciary’s doors to get orders for registering of a case, but not without the cost of financial burden in the shape of lawyers fees and other expenses.

Mirza Afzal Baig, owner of the Baig Furnishers House, speaks of the ordeal he went through while getting a case registered. He told Dawn that robbers took away Rs10,000 from his showroom on the Yousaf Shah Road, which is at a stone’s throw from DPO’s office, a few days ago. He claimed he himself and some neighbouring traders identified the absconding robbers.

He said he approached the Kotwali police station for the registration of the case against the accused, alleging that the SHO did nothing but suggesting him to try to locate the robbers so that police could conduct a raid. Disappointed with the police attitude, the complainant claimed he tried to seek city DSP’s and the DPO’s help, but got no relief.

Subsequently, he claimed he filed a writ petition with the Lahore High Court, seeking orders for registration of FIR. The LHC judge reportedly asked him to file his writ petition with the local district and sessions judge, who ordered registration of case. The complainant claimed it took him three months and cost huge money in getting the case registered.

To quote another incident, Muhammad Amir of Haveli Dewan village complained to the Masson police that robbers plundered cash and valuables from his house situated in Hassan police station precinct. Refused by the Masson police, he claimed that he, along with a lawyer, went to the DPO, who instead of ordering the registration of a case directed the SHO concerned to look into the matter and take necessary legal action. He said he returned to the SHO with the DPO’s orders, complaining that the former was still looking into the matter even after three months.

A police department source cited two main reasons for this reluctance in registering theft cases. First when police registered a case, especially of dacoity, it became obligatory to the investigating officer and the SHO concerned to arrest the dacoits in a short time and recover the stolen property. They also had to submit report to their superiors regularly on the progress of the investigation, he said, adding the SHOs preferred not to register cases to avoid such a hassle.

Second, he claimed, each registered case added to the crime list of a particular police station or a district, and that restrained the high-ranking district police officials from exerting pressure on their subordinates to register theft cases.

In a district like Jhang where there were four to five strikes by robbers daily in each village, the crime rate could easily soar, the spokesman added.