RAWALPINDI, Aug 3: Two police officers were booked by the Anti-Corruption Establishment on the charges of taking Rs50,000 as illegal gratification from a vehicle owner, official source said on Wednesday.

Sardar Asif Ali, a resident of Rehman Abad, Chaklala in a complaint lodged with the Anti-Corruption director Mohammad Saleem Hussain in March said his Toyota car, driven by his driver, was intercepted by the Airport police in February 2011 and impounded it as it was, according to them, registered on fictitious documents.

Initial investigations by the assistant director anti-corruption establishment Zahid Hussain found the two police officers, SHO Cantonment Inspector Karim Nawaz Niazi, and sub-inspector Mohammad Amin, guilty.

However, the accused police officers are yet to be suspended and arrested.

Following the registration of the case against the owner of the car Sardar Asif Ali, he was summoned by then Airport SHO inspector Karim Nawaz Niazi.

He said Inspector Niazi and sub-inspector Mohammad Amin allegedly asked him to pay Rs50,000 for quashing the case against him and releasing his impounded car.

Sardar Asif quoted the police officers as saying: “We would properly release your car on superdari and nobody would ask you about your case, if Rs50,000 were given to us.”

He said that he arranged the money and handed it over to the two police officers in the presence of one Raja Farhad Abbasi and Sardar Azeem.

Despite fulfilling their demand, the vehicle was not returned nor was the case withdrawn against him.

Instead, he was arrested from the house of his relative Raja Sajjad Ahmed Abbasi in Afzal Town where he had gone to inquire after his health on February 20, 2011.

He said the police raiding party had not only taken him into custody but they also ransacked the house of Sajjad Ahmed Abbasi.

Sardar Asif Ali said later he was interrogated at the police station by sub-inspector Nazim Abbas who, according to him, was affiliated with a local MPA of his rival political party.

He said, “I was taken by surprise when the investigating officer informed me that the case against him was still pending and nobody has withdrawn it.”

He said despite having been assured by the then SHO Karim Niazi and his colleague that the case against him would be withdrawn, he was sent to judicial lock-up.

Sardar Asif said, “Although I was bailed out, I spent some difficult days in the jail lockup.

The documents of my vehicle were genuine, but I was implicated in the case apparently due to political rivalry.”

A senior official of the anti-corruption department said that the two police officials would be investigated and statements of the witnesses would be recorded as they had started proceedings in the case.

He said in the light of the investigation, if the two officers were found guilty, they would be arrested.