KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday remanded a newly appointed DSP in police custody in a case pertaining to a robbery during a raid on the house of a trader in Orangi Town.

DSP Umair Tariq Bajari, who is an under-training officer and said to be quite influential, was arrested on Tuesday night and brought to the city courts on Wednesday in an armoured-personnel carrier and produced before a judicial magistrate (West) for remand.

The DSP and his two gunmen — Constable Khurram Ali and Constable Farhan Ali — and several other unidentified policemen and private persons have been booked for raiding the house of trader Shakir Khan in Orangi Town on the night between Nov 18 and 19 and looting over Rs20 million, jewellery and other valuables.

The investigating officer of the case requested the court for the custody of DSP for questioning and further investigations.

Probe concludes DSP Bajari conducted raid on trader’s house in Orangi with ‘mala fide intentions’

However, lawyer for the suspect opposed the plea and argued that his client was not present at the crime scene and no recovery was made from his possession.

The judicial magistrate remanded the suspect in police custody for one day.

A case was registered under Sections 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 365 (kidnapping or abducing with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 395 (punishment for dacoity), and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Pirabad police station.

Influential family

Sources told Dawn that DSP Bajari was a nephew of private secretary to the ex-CM Murad Ali Shah. His father Tariq Bajari had served as the chief of the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company. His grandfather, Hasan Bajari, had also worked as the private secretary to late chief minister Syed Abdullah Shah, they added.

He was sent to the Sindh police in June after he completed his training at the National Police Academy. He was under training with South SSP Imran Qureshi.

After reports of a robbery during the raid on the trader’s house in Orangi surfaced, the inspector general of police had ordered a probe. DIG-West Asim Khan conducted the inquiry and submitted a report to the IGP, concluding that the raid was conducted with mala fide intentions.

“The deliberate concealment of actual facts and the casual approach towards such a task reflects that the officer DSP is directly responsible for this illegal/criminal act along with his staff and private informers,” the inquiry report stated.

The DIG recommended strict departmental/legal action against DSP Bajari for his “direct involvement in such a heinous crime”.

The inquiry officer also mentioned that DSP Bajari was previously involved in “similar illegal/criminal activities’ in the Darakhshan police station.

No intelligence agency involved in raid

During the course of the inquiry, SSP-South Imran Qureshi had informed the DIG that he directed DSP Bajari to conduct a raid on information provided by an ‘informer’ that some documents pertaining to financial transaction by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London were hidden in the house.

He said that the police team was supposed to collect material evidence and not any valuables. He made it clear that it was not a joint raid and no intelligence agency accompanied the raiding team.

He claimed that he had informed DIG and SSP of West district about the raid in Orangi.

However, the inquiry committee recommended an appropriate action against the SSP-South for not assigning the raid to professionally trained officers.

Raid turns into robbery

The inquiry report stated that on the night between Nov 18 and 19 at around 2:15am, a police team from district South conducted a raid at an Orangi house, searched it and took into custody a box containing around Rs9 million, Rs10.5m cash as well as all gold ornaments weighing around 60-70 tolas in a black school bag.

They also seized 12 cell phones and two laptops and left the house at 4am along with trader and house owner Shakir Khan and brother Amir Khan. “Both detainees were taken from the house to an unknown destination. The police party left the brothers at Baloch Colony,” it said.

The next day, Shakir visited the Pirabad police station and narrated the whole incident to SHO Imran Khan who asked him to go to the Defence police station.

The report stated that on the same night they went to the Defence police where the area SHO handed them Rs10.35m cash, more than half of the looted jewellery, 12 cell phones and two laptops.

Shakir informed the inquiry team that his family was not affiliated with political party and they were just businessmen.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2023