FAISALABAD: City Police Officer Afzaal Kausar has approached Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Sukhera for action against the deputy superintendent of police who has been found guilty of getting his subordinate traffic warden thrashed by goons in a probe.

People’s Colony Circle DSP Khawar Saleem Warraich was found guilty of dispatching goons to teach Warden Rashid Rasheed a lesson for exchanging words with him when the officer admonished his subordinate over absence from the place of his duty.

The inquiry was conducted by the chief traffic officer on the direction of the CPO.

The CTO said in his report that the People’s Colony DSP had found Warden Rashid Rasheed absent from his duty point a couple of weeks ago. However, afterwards the warden reached the point and met the DSP.

The report said apparently during the meeting the two exchanged hot words.

Soon after the DSP left, some unidentified men riding motorcycles reached the spot, attacked Rasheed, subjected him to torture publicly and torn his uniform.

CPO recommends action against the officer

Some of the people present on the spot intervened and nabbed two of the attackers — Mushtaq of Officers Colony and Kashif of Madina Town -- who were later handed over to police and a case was registered against them under sections 148,149,186,353, 379 and 506 of the PPC.

The CTO mentioned in the report that it transpired that the attackers were sent by the DSP as it was evident from the statement of another Warden Imran, who was in charge of the D Ground traffic sector.

Imran, in his statement, categorically stated that the DSP later confessed to his crime during a meeting with him and Rasheed.

Rasheed in a written statement endorsed Imran’s contention.

The report said: “The act on your part is unbecoming of a good police officer, degraded the morale of a disciplined force (and) as such falls under the purview of gross misconduct.”

The report dispatched to the IG reads that the DSP had issued a show-cause notice to the warden on account of his absence from duty. The warden is currently serving in Lahore in connection with the Orange Line Train project.

The show-cause notice was pending and would be decided upon his return to Faisalabad, the report added.

A traffic warden requesting anonymity told Dawn that torture of Rasheed by the henchmen of a senior officer had caused panic among the wardens because officers were supposed to protect their subordinates, not to subject them to inhuman treatment. He said it was an irony that the culprit officer was still serving in Faisalabad and no action had been initiated against him.

CTO Sardar Asif told Dawn that during the inquiry the DSP had categorically denied the charges.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2015