PESHAWAR, May 23: The father of a three-year-old boy, who was murdered after having been kidnapped, accused a police officer of corruption and urged authorities concerned to transfer the case to the crime branch for re-investigation.

Mr Inayat said that his son, Ehtisham, was kidnapped on March 14, 2004. He accused two men, Aurangzeb and Lalzada, both residents of Islamabad of the same town, of kidnapping his son.

Mr Inayat said that Aurangzeb and Lalzada had kidnapped in connection with a monetary dispute. He said that Aurangzeb had paid him Rs9,000 as token money for the purchase of a rickshaw.

The man had later cancelled the deal and he was unable to return him the said amount. On March 17, Aurangzeb and Lalzada had killed his son and thrown his body in the locality. The Rustam police registered the murder case on the same day, he added.

He accused Sub-Inspector Tajbar Khan of taking bribe to weaken the murder case to benefit the accused. He urged authorities concerned to transfer the case from the Rustam police station to the crime branch besides calling for a case re-investigation in an impartial manner.

When this correspondent tried to contact SI Tajbar Khan for his comments in this regard, a police official said that he had been transferred and posted at Police Lines in Mardan.