LAHORE: A station house officer (SHO) was suspended from service while three police constables were booked after they took a citizen in illegal custody and set him free after getting Rs275,000 from his family.

Action was taken on directions of the Lahore capital city police officer (CCPO) against Shalimar SHO Asim Hameed and the police constables from Manawan, Shalimar and Qilla Gujjar Singh police stations.

A police official said one of the three constables was the confidant of the SHO in question. The group of three constables from various police stations went to the house of one Malik Wajid Ali in Qilla Gujjar Singh on a police van and told him that they had come from the Manawan Police Station. They questioned his young son, Yousaf, handcuffed him and took away both the father and the son at gunpoint.

The policemen took them to an undisclosed place where they set Malik Wajid free, asking him to make arrangements of Rs500,000 for the release of his son.

While giving Wajid a mobile phone number to contact, the constables warned him that they would implicate his son in a fake criminal case if he won’t provide them money.

Malik Wajid gave the policemen Rs275,000 he had arranged for the marriage of his daughter. On contacting, a constable gave him another mobile phone number of a person whom he introduced as Nanha.

As Wajid called on the given number, Nanha asked him to hand over extortion amount at the Ghazi Chowk. After Yousuf was released by the kidnappers, Wajid visited the CCPO office and filed an application against the policemen.

A probe proved that allegations against the policemen were true and a case was lodged against the three police constables went underground to avoid arrest.

The SHO was closed to the Police Lines.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2020