June 24, 2006	Saturday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 27, 1427

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JHANG, June 23: A civil judge has recommended regular trial of the Massan police station SHO by the special judge anti-corruption after finding him guilty of corruption and implicating an elderly person in a case he was already cleared off by a court.

Ata Muhammad, a resident of Bindi Patowana village, filed an application with the Anti-Corruption Establishment’s Jhang chapter against Massan police station SHO (inspector) Ghulam Rasool Gujjar, accusing him of extricating Rs15,000 from him as illegal gratification for the registration of a case.

Annoyed by the application, the SHO, together with his four constables, trespassed on Ata’s house on Oct 3, 2005. On questioning by Ata’s father Shahadat Ali, the SHO thrashed him and dragged him out of the house. The police also beat up and abused other inmates and later handcuffed the elderly Shahadat, humiliated him before villagers and sent him behind bars.

Now apprehending legal proceedings under habeas corpus for keeping the elderly man in illegal detention, the SHO implicated him in a case he was already acquitted of by a court one and-a-half years ago. The SHO later produced him before the court of area magistrate/civil judge and fraudulently obtained an order for the judicial custody of the accused in the district jail by concealing the earlier trial.

The judge, however, reappraised the case file on the advice of the petitioner’s counsel and found out the acquittal orders in it. He immediately ordered the release of the accused and cancellation of the false case against him.

Qasim Raza, the younger son of Shahadat, filed an application with the Jhang DPO for registration of a criminal case against the SHO and other police officials for keeping his father into illegal confinement but he took no action.

As a last resort, Qasim filed a private complaint with the court of the special judge anti-corruption, Faisalabad, who entrusted the task to Mr Kashif Qayyum, civil judge/magistrate, Jhang for preliminary inquiry under Section 202 of the CrPC.

After an exhaustive inquiry, the judge found the SHO guilty of corruption and offence of keeping an innocent citizen into illegal confinement with the ulterior motive of preventing his son from pursuing the application.

The judge had asked the SHO to appear in the court of the special judge anti-corruption to face regular trial which is under way. It is pertinent to mention that the SHO has already been facing several inquiries into allegations of corrupt practices initiated against him by the ACE. One such inquiry is being held on the application of Ghulam Rasool Mochi of Pir Kot Sadhana village, who alleged that the police official had extricated Rs12,000 as bribe from him just for adding another section to the FIR in which the applicant was a complainant. The SHO, however, refused to do so after receiving bribe from the accused party.

The applicant then met the DPO with the complaint but the latter refused to take any action against SHO Ghulam Rasool.

On yet another occasion did the DPO evade action against the same officer, even though Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Akmal Khan had recommended stern action against him for refusing to record a cross-version in an FIR.