FAISALABAD, Sept 29: The SHOs of the 39 police stations in Faisalabad allegedly hoodwinked the higher-ups by declaring 900 suspects proclaimed offenders during a campaign in July and August last.

As the government has no record of these POs, senior police officers have suspended 12 SHOs from service for fudging figures. The other SHOs seem to have got away with the same offence.

Regional Police Officer Javed Islam learnt that during a campaign against POs in July and August, the SHOs came up with bogus figures of arrests. He deputed SSP (Investigation) Rai Zameerul Haq to inquire into the allegation.

The SSP found out that the SHOs of all police stations, except the women police station, showed arrest of 1,170 POs though only 257 were actual proclaimed offenders.

He detected that the SHOs of Garh, Tarkhani, Mamonkanjan and Balochni claimed arrests of 34 POs by each of them. The Millat Town SHO showed 37 POs (one was genuine), the D-Type Colony SHO showed 55 POs (two were genuine) and the Thekriwala SHO showed 18 POs (one was genuine).

The Jaranwala city SHO showed 34 POs, the Madina Town SHO (29), the Civil Lines SHO (27), the Mansoorabad SHO (31), the Sandal Bar SHO (18), the Rodala Road SHO (18) and the Muridwala SHO (13). In fact, each of them arrested two POs.

The People’s Colony and Khurrianwala SHOs showed 34 and 28 arrests respectively (three being actual figure), the Sahianwala SHO showed 45 (seven were POs), the Batala Colony SHO claimed 26 arrests (four were POs), the City Samundri SHO showed 40 (actual figure was eight), the Nishatabad SHO showed 24 (five were genuine), the City Tandlianwala SHO showed 22 (five were genuine), the Saddar Samundri SHO showed 27 (actual figure was six), the Sattiana SHO claimed 17 (actual figure was four), the Factory Area SHO showed 49 (13 were POs).

The Lundianwala SHO showed 38 (10 were POs), the Ghulam Muhammad Abad SHO showed 45 (13 were POs), the Jhang Bazaar SHO claimed 27 (eight were genuine POs), the Samanabad SHO claimed 46 arrests (14 was actual figure), the Bahlak SHO showed 31 (10 was actual figure), the Jhumra SHO claimed 20 (seven was actual figure).

The Saddar Tandlianwala police had the figure of 28 (11 genuine POs), Saddar (22-9), Razaabad (19-8), Sargodha Road (39-17), Saddar Jaranwala (33-15), Dijkot (23-11), Gulberg (27-14), Rail Bazaar (22-12) and Kotwali (35-22).

On Thursday last, the RPO, who is also holding the additional charge of the city police officer after the transfer of Abdul Razzaq Cheema, suspended 12 of the SHOs on the recommendations of the inquiry officers.

The suspended SHOs are: Masood Nazir (Civil Lines), Abdul Majeed (Thekriwala), Mazhar Hussain (Mamonkanjan), Ahmed Yar (Garh), Aamir Khan (Tarkhani), Zahid Hussain (D-Type Colony), Kashif Riaz (People’s Colony), Mohsin Munir (SI Balochni) and Mohammad Farooq (Millat Town).

Three former SHOs -- Inspector Aamir Mushtaq (Madina Town), SI Javed (Mansoorabad) and Ubaidur Rehman (City Jaranwala) -- also had been suspended.

The RPO told Dawn that these SHOs had been suspended for poor performance and fudging figures during the campaign.

The policemen appointed SHOs of Model Police Stations (MPS) are included in the dodgers’ list. These SHOs are: Hafiz Irfan (Kotwali), Kashif Riaz (People’s Colony) and Inspector Abid Hussain and Waheed Shahid of the Batala Colony police stations.

It is learnt that action has been taken against Kashif Riaz whereas the other MPS heads have been allowed to continue their jobs.

The SHOs of Samanabad (Saeed Anwar) and Factory Area (Khalid Mehmood) covering the constituencies of Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah and State Minister for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali had been found guilty of dodging. Both of them are still serving.

Sources said many SHOs had got away with action because of their “political backing”. Among them were those who showed figures between 37 and 89 per cent higher than the actual arrests of POs.

The RPO said it was not possible for him to suspend the SHOs of all police stations in the district. He denied political support for these police station heads. He said show-cause notices had been served on all of them and they would be penalised gradually.