RAWALPINDI, Nov 19: Five police officials were suspended and a criminal case was registered against them on the charges of replacing gold jewellery recovered from thieves with artificial ones.

Ayub Alam Advocate lodged a complaint with Regional Police Officer Rawalpindi Nasir Khan Durrani that burglars ransacked his house and took away defence certificates of Rs330,000, gold ornaments valuing Rs500,000, Rs250,000 cash and three cellphones.

A case was registered with the Civil Lines police who after an investigation rounded up two culprits and recovered the stolen cash, jewellery and the certificates from their possession.

However, he alleged, the police misappropriated the recovered property by replacing the gold ornaments with artificial ones. He further alleged that the police did not recover all the stolen property due to ulterior motive and sent the culprits to jail.

The RPO appointed SSP range crime and a DSP as inquiry officers to investigate the matter.

After examining the record, the team found the complaint true and recommended strict action against the police officials.

Later, the RPO ordered registration of a case against the policemen and placed them under suspension.

The accused were identified as sub-inspector Sikandar Khan, former in-charge of the Tariqabad police post; sub-inspectors Zafar Iqbal, Safaraz Ahmad, Iqbal and ASI Afzaal Ahmad.