LAHORE, Sept 2: The deteriorating police detection ratio leading to poor convictions by courts, increasing corruption and demerits in cases had eventually forced capital city police authorities to bring radical changes in the investigation wing by transferring one divisional SP on Saturday last.

Sources privy to the development told Dawn that the poor performance of most of divisional SPs, SDPOs and investigation in charges had compelled the DIG (investigation) to seriously think to make radical changes to achieve targets.

They said rising injustices to complainants owing to corruption and inability of investigation officers had seriously affected the overall performance of the investigation wing.

Officials say the investigation wing sans the Organized Crime (CIA) conducts investigation of around 90 per cent of the total cases.

Chaudhry Shafique Ahmad, who assumed the charge of DIG (Investigation) about one-and-a-half month ago, has conducted marathon meetings with all six divisions and ordered to improve their performance.

He got Civil Lines SP (Investigation) Rana Muhammad Azeem transferred on Saturday last on complaints of corruption, and the provincial police officer, on the DIG’s recommendation, appointed Defence circle ASP Adeel Hussain Chandio.

Mr Azeem was transferred and directed to report to the Punjab Police Headquarters.

Chandio is likely to be promoted to the rank of additional SP along with others by the federal government this month.

Sources said as the DIG had already expressed dissatisfaction over the performance of some other divisional SPs, authorities were also ‘seriously’ considering transfer of Cantonment SP (Investigation) Anwer Khaitran, Iqbal Town SP (Investigation) Sahibzada Bilal Omer and City SP (Investigation) Rana Shujat Ali and replacing them with suitable SPs.

Some SDPOs, including DSPs of Samanabad, North Cantonment and Muslim Town, and at least five investigation in charges (South Cantonment, Nawab Town, Chuhng, Defence A and City Raiwind) are also likely to be made OSDs because of their poor performance and corruption complaints.

The DIG, who has completed the first round of six divisional meetings, raised concerns over delays in detection of cases and submission of challans and involvement of IOs in corrupt practices.

He categorically asked officers to achieve targets without being involved in corruption otherwise he would start indiscriminate action against them.

Elaborating targets, Mr Ahmad said he wanted speedy process of submitting challans in heinous cases and arresting wanted criminals.

He directed officers to ensure their arrival at the crime scene within five minutes and gather the crime scene evidence in a professional way.

The DIG made it clear that he desired to activate the investigation wing in competition with the operations wing.

He asked his subordinates that he would not tolerate the inconvenience caused to complainants by investigation officers, including SDPOs and investigation in charges, who had developed a habit not to entertain them on merit.