ISLAMABAD: In the presence of a digital control room (DCR) in the office of the inspector general of police (IGP), the station house officer (SHO) and investigating officer of Shahzad Town alone should not be held guilty for negligence in acting on an application of the father of a 10-year-old girl who was abducted, allegedly raped and murdered.

Sources in the police told Dawn that the senior-most officers monitoring the working of police stations through the digital control room were equally guilty of negligence.

The DCR in the IGP office monitors, through live cameras, each and every activity in the offices of SHOs and station clerks (moharrar) of all police stations. In case of any negligence or inaction, the police chief and other officers are supposed to take up the matter. This means a complainant cannot be denied registration of an FIR or complaints cannot be left unaddressed by the police station.

Senior-most officers monitoring working of police stations through DCR set up at IGP office

As such, if Gul Nabi kept visiting the Shahzad Town police station for four days seeking registration of a case over kidnapping of his daughter and was not being entertained by the SHO and the moharrar, it was also the responsibility of the IGP and other officers to take up the matter.

The DCR, comprising a number of computer screens, monitors the activities of the SHOs and other officials through cameras installed there.

Officials monitoring the activities have a duty to inform the in-charge of the DCR and the IGP whenever they spot anything wrong, including visitors not being attended properly by the policemen.

Besides, the DCR also has a large screen on which status of an FIR registered at any police station and complaints lodged by citizens are showed.

If any complaint remains unattended or no action is initiated in the registration of an FIR within 24 hours, one side of the computer screen starts blinking. According to the standard operating procedure (SOP), in such a case the IGP directs the DIG, SSP and SP concerned to take action.

Similarly, the DCR also includes an SMS system and whenever any complainant is received at a police station and entered into the complaint management system, an SMS is generated and sent to all senior officers concerned, including the IGP.

When contacted, police spokesman Inspector Khalid Awan confirmed to Dawn that the DCR was fully operational.

But when asked why the IGP and other senior officers did not take action when there was a delay in registration of the FIR by the Shahzad Town police, he started commenting on other issues. He said gender complaint desks were available in all the police stations. Due to lack of awareness the citizens are not aware of the prime minister’s citizens’ portal and the IGP’s e-mail to lodge complaints, he added.

On Wednesday night, Prime Minister Imran Khan took notice of the abduction, gang rape and murder of the girl, criminal negligence by police and delay in the arrest of the SHO and IO.

Shortly after the notice, the police high-ups called the SHO and the IO to the police station and kept them there. But according to the law, they should have been produced in the court of a magistrate for remand. The police took them to the court of an assistant commissioner from where they both obtained bail and were released.

The spokesman said a police team was taking the SHO and the IO to the court of a judicial magistrate when they were informed that the officials had applied for bail before arrest.

So the police took them to the court of the AC where hearing of the matter was to be held on May 30. The court asked them to submit surety bonds worth Rs50,000 or he would send them to jail on judicial remand.

As a result, both the officials submitted the surety bonds and were released on bail, he added.

Police claim that a SOP had been created for crimes against children after the Kasur incident. But the SOP was found to be inoperative/deficient in the latest case in the capital, said the sources.

Judicial inquiry begins

A judicial inquiry ordered by the district magistrate started probing the abduction, rape and murder of the girl on Thursday.

Additional Deputy Commissioner (HQs) Bilawal Abro is conducting the inquiry to establish “facts and fix responsibility.” The officer recorded statements of the complainant and his family members. Besides, statements of some police officers were also recorded.

Meanwhile, investigators picked another suspect on the identification of the family, sources close to the investigation said. The suspect, according to the victim’s family, had given “undue attention to the girl when she was playing outside her house before disappearing.”

So far, the number of suspects in the case has reached four and their DNA profiling has been made and sent to a lab.

Geo-fencing of the area from where the girl was abducted and the area where her body was found has also been completed.

So far profiling of over 150 mobile phones has been completed and investigators collated details of people owning the phones besides their locations from May 15 to 19.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2019