ISLAMABAD: Constable Malik Abid and ASI Shakeel Ahmed of Bhara Kahu are being investigated on the complaint of a resident of the area that they detained him and his brother illegally to extort money and to coerce him to withdraw the charges, according to the Bhara Kahu police station.

ASI Shakeel, however, denied the charge to Dawn. He claimed that constable Abid provided information on July 11 that he had spotted some people stealing telephone cable and when he reached the spot he found the brothers Omar Badshah and Farman Khan there and arrested them red-handed.

“They are leveling allegations at police to avoid legal action against them,” the officer said.

But according to the FIR that Omar filed with police on August 1 against constable Abid, it all began in early July when he asked Abid, his neighbour, to return the Rs50,000 he had borrowed from him in May.

“Instead, he turned up at my house at Sehri time on July 5 and asked me to accompany him to the police station. Two men grabbed me and took me to the police station where they tortured me and slammed me in the lock up,” he said in the FIR.

Omar says the FIR was registered at the intervention of senior police officers and a court he approached following continuing police harassment.

After his first ‘illegal’ arrest, he said he was released quietly after his uncle paid Rs60,000 the accused constable demanded for his freedom.

But his complaint to the Senior Superintendent of Police led to his rearrest by ASI Shakeel on July 11, along with his brother Farman in connection with a theft case filed by citizen Dad Mohammad under FIR211.

Alhough he was released after a few hours, he says his brother was detained formally in the theft case. “The ASI threatened me with dire consequences and asked me to withdraw my complaint against constable Abid which triggered an inquiry,” Omar said in his FIR.

At this stage an affidavit by Dad Mohammad that he did not accuse or nominate anyone in the theft FIR211 he had filed with the police came to the rescue of Farman and a court ordered his release.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2015

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