A man has approached senior capital police officers claiming that some officials at the Kohsar police station treated him unjustly, and gave undue favour to his rival by lodging a case against him.

He alleged that the police detained him in a lock-up, allowing his rival – a business partner – to occupy his home and steal his belongings.

Raja Khalid Mehmood told Dawn that a friend of his introduced him to an Islamabad resident after he expressed an interest in investments in late 2015. At the time, Mr Mehmood had a marriage hall on Adiala Road.

Mr Mehmood made an agreement with the individual that he would invest an amount and the profit against it would be distributed equally between them. He said the man was bound to pay him 2pc of the amount if the business failed to earn any profits.

“I paid him Rs50 million in December 2016 and got Rs1 million against the amount at the end of the month,” he said. The next month, the man asked for another Rs50 million but Mr Mehmood gave him Rs25 million. He said a separate agreement over the next payment was also made with him in January this year.

The agreement stated that the man had gotten Rs75 million from Mr Mehmood for business use, to buy houses in Islamabad. Mr Mehmood said his business partner was bound to pay 50pc of the profits from selling and leasing houses.

“If I fail to do as above said affidavit, I am bound to transfer my house...in favour of [Mr Mehmood’s wife] which I have given to her and her husband as a guarantee. They can live in the house as long as they wish and the rent - $5,000 - will be deducted from the profit which is mentioned above.”

Mr Mehood said when he demanded January’s profits from the man, the latter made excuses and then began ignoring him and not taking his phone calls.

Weeks later, the man met Mr Mehmood and gave him possession of the house over which the agreement was made before disappearing once more.

In the application submitted to senior police officials, Mr Mehmood said on Apr 3, 2016, the man came to his residence and was followed some time later by armed individuals. Mr Mehmood said the armed individuals were the man’s employees, who raided the house. They asked Mr Mehmood to vacate the house which he did, and on his way out, he made a call to Rescue 15.

The application claimed that Mr Mehmood left the house before the police arrived. He later took the agreements and went to the Kohsar police station, where he lodged the complaint with the station house officer (SHO).

In the meantime, his business partner had lodged a complaint against him claiming that he had occupied his house. The application said the SHO put him behind bars.

It added that the house was attacked by armed men once more who occupied the house and held Mr Mehmood’s wife. “Mehmood’s wife approached his lawyer who reached the police station and sought help to recover his wife.” In response, the lawyer and a police team recovered Mr Mehmood’s wife, who is a Norwegian national.

The SHO then arrested Mr Mehmood to prevent any further clashes between the two parties while an employee of the business partner was also detained.

The application claimed that when Mr Mehmood obtained a bail the next day, he saw the SHO sitting with the man and asked him to settle the matter.

“Over my reply that [I would first] discuss the issue with my lawyer, the SHO put me in the lock-up again and a case was also registered against me,” he stated in the application, adding the investigation was handed over to Assistant Sub-Inspector Shahid Munir and later to SI Liaqat Ali.

During the investigation, the police took him to the house where he found $6,000 in cash, gold ornaments worth Rs900,000 and documents missing.

He alleged that the police helped his opponent occupy the house and steal the missing items by detaining him in the lockup. He said he had gotten a stay order from the courts over the house after the man disappeared in January. He said the police violated the order and got possession of the house for the man.

The then SHO of Kohsar police, Malik Bashir, was suspended a few weeks ago for helping the land mafia occupy houses. When contacted, Mr Bashir said he was busy.

The investigating officer denied Mr Mehmood’s allegations, and said Mr Mehmood had been found guilty during the investigation. He said a case involving fraud had been registered against Mr Mehmood with the Karachi Company police. The former investigating officer, Mr Munir, said the investigation being taken from him was a routine matter.

Two separate cases were registered against Mr Mehmood, while three were registered against his business partner at the Kohsar, Ramna and Karachi Company police. Despite several attempts, Mr Mehmood’s business partner could not be contacted.

Published in Dawn, May 23rd, 2016