RAWALPINDI, March 5: Several months after a man first accused police of holding onto money they found in his stolen car, two Rawalpindi policemen – a sub inspector and a Station House Officer – have been charged with theft, on the orders of an additional district and sessions court judge. Neither the SHO nor the sub inspector has been suspended or arrested.

The policemen accused of the theft, which took place last October, are then-SHO of Westridge Police Station, Malik Allah Yar, and then-investigating officer, Sarfraz.

While the complainant first turned to police authorities, including the Additional Inspector General of Police in Rawalpindi and the Anti-Corruption Establishment, it was not until he went to Hakim Khan, a judge in the additional district and sessions court, that a case could be registered.

The story begins with a common street crime: On October 3, Khasta Gul was stuck in a traffic jam on Peshawar Road, near Choor Chowk.

He was driving home to Battagram after changing Saudi riyals into local currency, for a total of Rs7.28 million.

The money was in two packets in his car, one containing Rs3.6 million and the other Rs3.7 million.

While he was stuck in traffic, Khasta Gul said: “Two men I didn’t know surrounded my car. They smashed the driver’s-side window and pulled out their pistols.”

Khasta Gul also drew his gun and fired at them, but missed. The men pushed him out onto the street and took off with his car, the money still inside.

Onlookers nearby didn’t attempt to catch the thieves, but did alert the police, who responded quickly.

In the exchange of gunfire, Khasta Gul received bullet wounds on his hands.

After the incident, he said, “I was taken to District Headquarters Hospital for surgery. The next day I got a call from the police. They said my car had been recovered and that the thieves had been arrested.” Grateful and relieved that his car – and, presumably, the money – had been found, Khasta Gul planned to give a cash reward to the police team.

The police told him, however, that they had recovered only Rs3.2 million.

After getting his car and the remainder of the money back, Khasta Gul says the court told him to go to Muhammad Zubair, RPO Rawalpindi, if he believed that police had stolen the rest of his cash.

“The RPO told me that I should go to the Anti-Corruption Establishment, because they handle police corruption cases,” Khasta Gul said. ACE was less than helpful, however. “I visited their office for more than three months, but couldn’t get anywhere with them.”

Eventually, he went to the offices of the judge, Hakim Khan, who finally ordered that a theft case be registered against two police officers. Malik Allah Yar is an influential SHO in Rawalpindi, and it has been a bitter pill for police to file a case against one of their own.