HYDERABAD, April 12: The SHO of Umerkot police station, Ghulam Nabi, has refuted allegations of harassment leveled against him by two petitioners before Mr. Justice Abdul Rehman Faruq Pirzada of the Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad circuit bench.

The police official told the court on Friday that in reality a Major in Military Intelligence (MI) had kept the dumpers and excavators there. “The matter entirely pertained to MI and police have nothing to do with it,” he said.

The SHO submitted his written statement in which he quoted his predecessor Ghazi Khan Chahcar, the then SHO of police station, saying that dumpers and loaders - for whose recovery the two petitioners had filed petitions and a raid commissioner was appointed by the court - were parked there by an MI official, Major Taimor as “Amanat”.

He said that after a raid commissioner Ghulam Murtaza Shah visited the police station on April 9 under the court directives and submitted his report that two excavators and one dumper were found parked at the police station whereas one each dumper and excavator were parked at Sindh Samo petrol pump.

The commissioner was informed by the SHO Ghulam Nabi that the vehicles were parked at the police station prior to his posting there on March 7. He SHO told him that the vehicles were not required in any case and he had no objection if they were taken away.

He appeared before the court and also brought the vehicles as per court’s directives. He said that the former SHO of Ghazi Khan Rajar police station had informed him about the two excavators and a dumper and told him that the vehicles had been entrusted to him by a Major Taimor of MI.

Quoting the former SHO, he said that one of the dumpers and an excavator were parked at a petrol pump and Major Taimor told him to keep surveillance over the vehicle and that he would later move them to Chore Cantonment.

He said that still the concerned Major had not turned up to take the vehicles and he was taking care of them. He refuted the petitioners’ allegations that police were harassing them or demanding money. “The matter entirely pertained to MI’s Major and police have nothing to do with it”, he said.

The court directed the SHO to hand over the custody of the five vehicles to their respective lawful owners after due verification regarding their ownership in light of the vehicles’ registration papers.

Naseebullah Khan and Khanzeb Khan had filedf the petitions through Parveen Chachar advocate, stating that on Jan 18 the then SHO had called them to the police station and warned if they wanted to continue working there then they would have to pay him Rs25,000 per vehicle. He had snatched away the keys also, they added.