MUZAFFARGARH: Police on Wednesday registered a case against a municipal committee chairman and his accomplices on the allegation of torturing an agriculture department officer and two others during a surprise visit to check fertiliser prices.

Assistant Director Agriculture Extension Tahir Mahmood said he got information that Mohammad Azam, a shopkeeper at Mohammad Mosa, was overcharging for fertilisers. He said he, along with two officials, visited the shop as customers and found out that Azam was selling a urea bag for Rs2,400 against the Rs1,760 rate fixed by the government.

He said when he introduced himself as agriculture official and said he was checking the fertiliser rates, the shopkeeper became angry and called some people including MC chairman Akram Khan Chandia who took away the team to a deserted place and tortured them.

He said the mob tried to set the official jeep ablaze and snatched Rs9,500 from his pocket. Later, he said, he contacted Deputy Director Agriculture Dr Shaukat Ali Abid who asked him to approach the Chowk Karamdad Qureshi police for registration of a case.

Police registered a case against Chandia and nine other people under sections 365, 506, 148, 149, 342, 382, 353 and 186 and The Punjab Fertilizer Control Order 1973(4).

Chandia denied the allegation and said the case had been orchestrated by the MPA who was special adviser to the chief minister on agriculture. He said he was the MC chairman and he never visited a fertiliser shop which was 15km away from his house. He said he would fight the case.

Published in Dawn, November 25th, 2021