KARACHI, Nov 11: Three police officials, including an SHO, along with a civilian, have been arrested for making a deal with an absconding suspect for his release from custody.

Well-placed sources in the police department said that the SHO of Sachal, Ayaz Khan, picked up Abdul Waheed from his office in Gulshan-i-Iqbal near Hasan Square on Nov 9. Waheed was booked in a narcotic smuggling case (FIR 152/01) registered in Ravi Road police station, Lahore, in 2001. The Punjab government had announced reward money of Rs1 million for his arrest, the sources added.

They said that the SHO, along with his accomplices, head constables Liaquat and Riaz, and an informer, Idrees, struck a deal of Rs3 million for the release of Waheed, who called his relative Nadeem from Lahore.

Nadeem gave Rs900,000 to the police officials at the airport, and the rest of the amount was to be given later, the sources added.Waheed called his business partner Chaudhry Tanveer to arrange Rs2 million.

Tanveer, an coconut importer, said that Waheed called him and asked to arrange Rs2 million, saying he had been kidnapped.Tanveer informed the police high-ups, who constituted an inquiry into the matter. Meanwhile, Tanveer arranged a meeting with those who had been calling him for ransom amount.

He said that the police raided the meeting point and arrested two men, one of them later turned out to be a police official. Tanveer, talking to Dawn, said: "I did not know the exact situation. I came to know later that Waheed was in police custody and a deal was struck to release him. Waheed was my business partner and I did not know that he was wanted by Lahore police."

The SHO, along with the two head constables and the informer, were arrested and handed over to the Gulshan-i-Iqbal ASP.

During interrogation, they told the police that all the matter was in the knowledge of the Gulshan Town Police Officer, Asif Aijaz, who had met Waheed on the night of Nov 9.

The police high-ups were recommended to lodge FIRs against the officials responsible under the Police Order-2002, and anti-corruption laws. An FIR for illegal detention of Waheed, along with his four other relatives, had also been recommended against the officials responsible, as there was no record of their detention, the sources added.