SIALKOT: Muhammad Nadeem Butt, a resident of Gali Baghwali College Road, Daska city, has been trying hard for over a month to get registered a theft case.

The owner of a car showroom in Daska had his house broken into and Rs4 million and 80-tola gold ornaments stolen on June 22.

He said he had been wandering for more than a month to get his theft case registered with the Daska City police station but to no avail. He said he even approached the Sialkot district police officer (DPO) but there had been no breakthrough.

“Instead of registering a case, the Daska police have declared the theft incident ‘bogus’,” he said.

Mr Butt is not alone in getting justice from the police.

Getting a case registered with the police has become an uphill task for the people, mostly in theft and dacoity incidents in Sialkot district.

Several applicants said the Sialkot police had made it a rule not to register theft or robbery cases. A few who got court orders for the police to register the case, the police declared the incidents ‘made up’ in investigation. Now, Mr Butt has decided to submit a writ petition to the local court for getting registered his case.

He condemned the delaying tactics of the Daska City police.

In Sialkot, Zafar Abbas, of village Syedaanwali, got his theft case registered with the Sialkot Saddar police after two weeks of the incident, on the order of a local court.

He said within a day, police investigator Murtaza Cheema declared the incident “false and bogus”. He said thieves stole Rs1 million and 60-tola gold ornaments from his house late on June 13.

“I’m an industrial worker, and the police say that how come an industrial worker with Rs18,000 per month salary have that much money and gold ornaments,” he said.

He said the stolen cash and ornaments were of his sisters who had kept at his house. He demanded proper investigation into his case by some senior police official.

Local police officials said their doors were open for every one to get justice on merit.

Mr Butt and Mr Abbas have demanded that Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Inspector General of Police retired Capt Arif Nawaz, Gujranwala Regional Police Officer Tariq Abbas Qureshi and Sialkot DPO Mustansar Feroz Awan take notice of delay in registration of cases by the police.

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2019