FAISALABAD: Three policemen including a former SHO and his son have been terminated from services as they were found guilty of kidnapping three people and receiving bribe for not killing them in a staged encounter.

Khalid Randhawa, his son Zeeshan Randhawa and police constable Zulqarnain had been found guilty during an inquiry conducted by SSP (Operations) Syed Ali Raza on the direction of City Police Officer Sohail Chaudhry.

On Jan 28 last, a case (87/20) was registered by the Civil Lines police against six people -- sub-inspector Khalid Randhawa, then posted at the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA), Makoana, his son Zeeshan, then serving as SHO Mamunkanjan, subinspector Naeem Adil, constables Qasim and Zulqarnain of CIA Vigilance Ghulam Muhammadabad and Niazi.

Adil has already been dismissed in another case and Qasim had been exonerated as he was found innocent and the applicant of the case withdrew his name from the case.

Masood Ahmed, applicant of the case, said his friend Imtiaz Ahmed had given a vehicle about three years ago to subinspector Khalid Randhawa. Imtiaz was booked in a murder case and sent to jail. After securing the bail, he said Imtiaz asked Randhawa to return his vehicle. The accused asked Imtiaz to meet him in the SP CIA office near the Iqbal Stadium. He said he, along with Sarwar and Imtiaz, had gone to the SP office on Jan 24 last.

“I remained present outside the SP office and Imtiaz and Sarwar went inside the office. Accused Naeem Adil and two constables turned up and took me and Sarwar to an unidentified location at the behest of Randhawa. The accused kept us at different locations for about eight hours, threatened to kill us in a staged encounter by implicating in different cases. We sought their mercy and accused Naeem Adil demanded Rs 1.5 million as ransom for their liberty,” he added.

He said accused Zeeshan called Imran, the son of Sarwar, from his mobile phone and informed him that they had kidnapped Sarwar. He said police would kill him in the encounter if he would not pay the ransom for his liberty.

The applicant said Zeeshan assured Imran that police would release Sarwar and Masood if he would pay the ransom. Both sides agreed on Rs 1.3 million as ransom and Imran reached near Faisal Hospital of Peoples Colony. Imran gave them Rs 600,000 as ransom and promised that remaining amount would be paid on Jan 25.

Sources told Dawn that the issue was brought into the notice of senior officers who summoned all the accused for the inquiry. During preliminary inquiry it was established that the accused had abducted and released them after receiving the ransom amount.

The accused policemen were arrested and Randhawa secured the bail after a couple of days. After the incident a chargesheet was issued to the accused policemen for a departmental inquiry. During the inquiry the SSP operations summoned the accused policemen, however, Randhawa did not join it citing dissatisfaction over the district police officials. He submitted that they had approached the Lahore High Court seeking justice because they did not expect justice from the local authorities in this case as officers have become parties against them.

Naeem Adil submitted that he was confined to the district jail and he wanted to submit his written reply through his counsel and also receive charge-sheet later on. In the light of the inquiry officer recommendations, the CPO dismissed the three policemen who were found guilty and issued their dismissal orders.

Published in Dawn, June 26th, 2020