April 23, 2007	Monday	Rabi-us-Sani 05, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

GUJRAT, April 22: Lorry Adda police set free a wood buyer allegedly after taking a back hander and concealing facts while registering an FIR on the charge of timber theft, Dawn learnt here on Sunday.

Some men of the timber mafia had stolen shisham lumber worth Rs5 million from a private forest at Mandi Bahauddin. They also stole some trees from an official forest. About a week back, they sold the stolen timber for Rs100,000 to Waqas Butt, the owner of a wood sale point that falls in the limits of the Civil Lines police station.

In the meanwhile, the Lorry Adda police conducted a raid and arrested Waqas Butt and three timber thieves, Wajid, Azam and Naseer of Mandi Bahauddin. But they reportedly released Waqas after taking Rs50,000 in bribe from him. The police also allowed him to take the stolen timber.

They had also demanded Rs50,000 each from the three accused and detained them at the police station for more than five days. It was only on the intervention of DPO Syed Ahsan Mehboob that the police had to register a case against them.

A local man was made a complainant of the case lodged under sections 379 and 411 of the PPC against the accused. The police also concealed facts like theft of timber from Mandi Bahauddin and the recovery place.

SI Babar Zaman, SHO Asad Ishaq and DSP (City) Riaz Cheema admitted that the timber (46 shisham trees) stolen from Mandi Bahauddin was recovered from the wood toll of Waqas Butt.

SI Zaman claimed that Waqas had been released because the recovery place did not lie in their precinct. The three officials, however, denied taking bribe from Waqas or any other timber thief.

When contacted by phone, DPO Syed Ahsan Mehboob said that he would probe into the matter.

POLICE FAILURE: Despite the passage of two days, Lalamusa Sadar police have failed to arrest the nominated accused involved in the murder of a brick kiln owner.

Nasir alias Shoka and his eight accomplices had shot dead Mian Khaliq near Tibi when he refused them to give the protection money.