FAISALABAD, Sept 10: The Sonia Naz rape case and the motor registration scandal took a twist on Saturday when senior Punjab police officers threw blame on one another for corruption, abuse of power and launching mudslinging campaigns. Recording statements before the one-man tribunal of District and Sessions Judge Abdul Waheed Khan, accused SP (Investigation) Abdullah Khalid levelled serious allegations against Faisalabad Range DIG Sajjad Ahmad Chaudhry, who was later summoned in an emergency for his counter-statement.

The counsel for complainant Sonia Naz, on the other hand, continued their boycott and did not turn up.

SP Abdullah recorded his statement in the presence of his counsel Arshad Warraich, Chaudhry Nazir Ahmad Sindhu and Saeed Gujjar and contended that he was not involved in any rape case or receipt of illegal gratification from the excise officials and others involved in the motor registration scandal.

He also said he had nothing to do with the investigation of the scam, but he supervised the entire proceedings of the interrogation conducted by different police investigators in the case of registration of vehicles with fake documents.

“I am being implicated in the case of rape, keeping people in illegal confinement and receiving bribes by Sonia Naz,” he iterated.

He alleged that DIG Sajjad was against him because he (the SP) conducted interrogation impartially.

As he concluded his statement, the prosecutors announced that the case should be wound up.

The tribunal, however, took suo moto notice of the SP’s statement and directed the prosecutors to call the DIG for cross-examination.

The DIG deposed before the tribunal that he had ordered SP Abdullah to conduct an inquiry into allegations levelled by Sonia Naz against Inspector Jamshed Iqbal Chishti. He said he had communicated a detailed written report of the SP’s misdeeds to the IGP on Aug 31 and requested him to transfer him and take an appropriate action against him.

He said the SP conducted the entire inquiry into the motor registration scandal on his own and forced his subordinates to write case diaries as he desired. He said a major portion of the inquiry proceedings was written by investigation inspector Haq Nawaz, who had claimed before the DIG Zafar Ahmad Qureshi-led inquiry committee that he was instructed by SP Abdullah to do so. The DIG described allegations against him as baseless, saying the SP had done so because a report against him had been sent to the provincial police chief.

Answering a question posed by SP Abdullah’s counsel, the DIG said he had constituted an inquiry committee, headed by Regional SP (Investigation) Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan but it could not accomplish the task owing to mysterious disappearance of Sonia Naz. He also denied having met Sonia Naz.

Earlier, inspector Jamshed told the tribunal that he was being implicated in the case. He said he was not directly associated with the investigation process of the motor registration scandal, but conceded that Asim Yousaf was handed over to him by the SP who ordered him to keep an eye on Asim instead of formally recording the arrest.

The tribunal has so far recorded the statements of 18 witnesses. None of the witnesses appeared before the tribunal in support of Sonia Naz due to her boycott and expression of no confidence.

The tribunal has adjourned the proceedings till Monday (tomorrow).