LAHORE, Aug 1: Police have turned some 250 stolen-and-recovered vehicles parked at Qila Gujar Singh Police Station into scrap by taking out their valuable parts.

According to a departmental report, a copy of which was made available to Dawn here on Sunday, the staff of the Qila Gujar Singh Police Station and the anti-car lifting squad were involved in the scam.

Punjab Inspector General Saadatullah Khan sent the same report to city police chief DIG Tariq Saleem Dogar on July 28, and asked for action and report at the earliest.

According to the report, about 25 vehicles parked on the premises of Gulberg Police Station were being used by members of the Anti-Car Lifting Squad. One official, police sources said, had been using a recovered vehicle (ACM-850) for the last one year while the case (347\2000) was pending with Gulberg police.

The report says that details of the vehicles parked at Qila Gujar Singh Police Station have been sent to a senior civil judge, but he has not recommended any action so far.

The report says that after the recovery of a stolen vehicle, police normally do not bother to inform the owner. If the vehicle recovered is in good shape it is used by some police officer or gifted to his friends.

The report also includes a few suggestions to control this trend. It has suggested that a special team comprising senior judges and MT experts should be constituted to inspect the recovered vehicles on a weekly basis.

The team should place advertisements in newspapers for tracing the owners and auctioning off the tampered-with (cut-and-weld) vehicles or those whose owners cannot be traced. A motor vehicle examiner should also be consulted in this regard.

It was suggested that senior officers should also be duty-bound to inspect the vehicles once a week. A gazetted officer should monitor the movement of these vehicles. The engine and chassis numbers of recovered vehicles should be advertised in newspapers.

The anti-car lifting squad in Lahore and police investigation wings or CIA staff elsewhere in the province are widely blamed for failing to hand over recovered vehicles to the owners.

They complicate the cases especially for those who are reluctant to meet their demands. The owners face more problems if their cars are being used by police officials.

On the other hand, members of the anti-car lifting squad claim that if the chassis or engine numbers of a recovered vehicle are not tampered with, it is handed over to the owner without delay. But a vehicle cannot be handed over to a person on a mere claim, they say.

The investigation wings or CIA staff of various districts of the province are said to be ill-equipped to check car theft in their respective districts. DIG Dogar said he had directed the CIA SP to look into the matter and submit his findings to him within 10 days. Action would be taken in the light of SP's report, he added.