FAISALABAD: The Millat Town police falsely implicated three people in a theft case and subjected two of them to severe torture for three weeks to extort money.

The CPO suspended SHO Waheed Shahid and ASI Sohail from service and ordered a departmental probe against them.

The ordeal of Naveed, Asif and Rehmat started when the police registered a case (595/14) against them on Oct 15 last on the allegation of stealing valuables from Faryad Ali’s home at Wahgewal.

Ali said in an application to the police that his family was not present at home on Oct 9 last when thieves took away valuables worth Rs60,000. During investigation, he said, two persons had told him that they had seen Rehmat and his accomplices escaping with a TV set.

He said he repeatedly asked the suspects to return the booty but they backtracked after initially promising to give back the valuables.

The police instead of probing the allegation arrested the three and later let one of them off the hook after getting Rs150,000.

It is learnt that the issue of false implication of the three people came to fore when the CPO paid a surprise visit to the police station this past Thursday and himself quizzed them in the lockup.

Sources said the CPO quizzed the two detainees one by one. Rehmat of Mardan told him that the police had arrested him in a hotel on Oct 2 on the allegation of giving a pistol to a man in Faisalabad.

The suspects had been arrested on Oct 2 though the ‘theft incident’ took place on Oct 9 and a case was registered on Oct 15. The police also arrested Asif of Shahkot, a labourer in Haripur, an acquaintance of Rehmat who was not familiar with Faisalabad.

Also of Haripur, Naveed had been taken into custody by the police for one week after which he secured his release through payment of Rs150,000 as bribe to the police.

Sources said the police subjected Rehmat and Asif to severe torture and kept asking them to arrange money for their release or confess theft. They told the CPO, said sources, they could not grease the palms of the police.

They said the police first kept and tortured them at the Munnianwala police post and then shifted them to police station and got their physical remand from a local court.

On Oct 15, the Forensic Medicine and Toxicology Department of the Punjab Medical College had arranged a workshop titled “Police torture cases in Faisalabad and Sargodha Divisions” as part of Faisalabad Model Division Project. The event was conducted to sensitise the police to refrain from torture as “Pakistan is signatory to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.”

The participating police officials pledged to overcome their shortcomings and adopt modern techniques of investigation rather than resorting to the age-old practices (including torture) of interrogation.

The CPO claimed that a case had been registered against the ASI and an inquiry started against both policemen.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2014