HYDERABAD: Additional Inspector General of Police, Hyderabad region, Ghulam Qadir Thebo — who retired on Saturday — demoted Hyderabad CIA in-charge Munir Abbasi from the rank of inspector to sub-inspector without waiting for finalisation of a pending inquiry against him over an ‘illegal raid’ conducted by Abbasi’s team in a district other than Hyderabad.

The reverted inspector has been posted to another police range from Hyderabad as well.

Hitting back at the outgoing AIG in a rare reaction, Abbasi said Thebo had become “personal” against him and awarded a major punishment for an incident that simply did not occur, even without giving him a personal hearing.

Accusing the AIG of passing a backdated punishment order on Saturday, which is a holiday otherwise, he alleged that outgoing CIA DSP Aslam Langah was the ‘driving force’ behind the case because he wanted re-posting in CIA Hyderabad.

The AIG demoted and posted him out to Mirpurkhas range from Hyderabad after finding him “guilty of an illegal raid” conducted by the CIA team. AIG Thebo told Dawn the other day that he took action on the basis of his own “source report”. He said: “In fact I am complainant in this case against Abbasi whose team used my vigilance team’s reference in the illegal raid”. He said he wanted to dismiss the in-charge from service, but took a lenient view.

The AIG’s July 17 action pertained to the alleged raid by CIA team in Daur (Shaheed Benazirabad district) where it seized a trailer with goods. The same was charge-sheeted at the Baldia police station, but precious goods were misappropriated. The team’s member, ASI Moharram, had confessed it and its presence was proved through call data record (CDR).

The AIG wrote in his order: “Inquiry is not received in this office [AIG], but the probe officer confirmed that the team went to Daur and took the 10-wheeler trailer into custody.” The AIG stated that the CIA team was intercepted by Daur police, but when they mentioned that they were from the AIG’s vigilance team, police let them go. The AIG said Raza Marri, who was in the team, was already transferred by him to Shaheed Benazirabad and two other CIA men were placed under suspension. But they continued to work in CIA with Abbasi’s permission, he added.

Abbasi has accused the AIG of victimising him. “I was issued a show-cause notice and not even personally heard before this major punishment for the incident that never occurred,” he claimed. “Can the AIG explain why he was in a haste that he passed the order in the last hours of his 35-year service and that too on an official holiday? Why didn’t he wait for the outcome of the inquiry? Does he think his successor won’t have punished me if I had [been found] guilty,” he said.

He claimed that even Daur police informed the inquiry office that they had not intercepted any team. “Can the AIG explain why he spared inspector Raza Marri or ASI Moharram — who as per AIG’s claim were in the team in Daur — and I can prove that a big quantity of goods, including betel nut, from the vehicle was charge-sheeted at Baldia police station and its driver is still in jail,” he said. Interestingly, he said, Marri was reinstated in another matter on July 17. “I was in Daur for around 48 hours with intelligence officials for some operation. The CDR the AIG is talking about relates to the episode and if permitted, I can name those intelligence counterparts,” he said.

Tug of war

Abbasi is said to be involved in a tug of war with outgoing DSP CIA Aslam Langah, who is currently posted in Tando Allahyar. Langah had served in Hyderabad for almost seven years which is perhaps the longest stint any policeman had in CIA Hyderabad in one go after Zulfikar Junejo.

“Aslam Langah used his connections to get me removed from CIA because he is poised to return to Hyderabad CIA,” alleged Abbasi. But Langah said Abbasi had paid the price for what he did and now he was unnecessarily dragging him into the affair. “Had I been interested, I would have opted for the post of DSP. Abbasi was not the DSP, yet he was made the in-charge. It was some other official who is using connection of a PPP MPA to get posting in CIA,” he said.

DSP Farooqui cleared of record tampering charge

Meanwhile, the AIG in another case has exonerated DSP Faheem Ahmed Farooqui from the charge of “tampering with police record” while disagreeing with the findings of an inquiry conducted by Sujawal SP Suhai Aziz Talpur. The inquiry team had found him responsible for “tampering with police record” and recommended departmental action against him.

It said the DSP bypassed the formal channel of command and opted for addressing a senior officer through an audio message. The inquiry officer found that the DSP made a post-dated entry in police register XIII.

The AIG said he found explanation of the DSP satisfactory and said ‘post-dated’ entry did not constitute “tampering with police record” as police made such entries after visit to the areas of their jurisdiction.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2020