PESHAWAR, June 2: The involvement of police department employees in cases of robbery and extortion is on the rise and over a dozen policemen were arrested last month for their role in various cases, official sources said. The city police had recently said that the issue had been resolved, but the arrest of the policemen on charges of robbing citizens in the past one month has belied the claim.
Four days ago, the city police arrested Sub-Inspector Irshad of the Hayatabad police station when he was allegedly receiving money from a person during a road-blockade. A case was registered against him.
Earlier, two constables of the same police station were arrested on the charge of receiving money from four persons.
Sources said the constables on their official motorcycles spotted two young men with two girls near Bagh-i-Naran in the Hayatabad township. The constables took the four to a nearby bungalow and deprived them of all the money they had as well as some gold ornaments. However, the sources said, as the two were busy in extortion the city police got wind of the crime and arrested the two constables at the bungalow with the booty.
Last month, the West Cantonment police in a raid arrested a gang of impostors from the Basharat Market for allegedly detaining innocent people while posing as policemen.
Sources said that the gang used official handcuffs for detaining people in a private room in Basharat Market. The gangsters told interrogators that they had got the handcuffs from the moharir of the West Cantonment police station, namely Ikram.
The police have since arrested the moharir and started investigation against him.
Sepoy Javed was arrested from Airport Road when he was busy snatching money from two persons.
ASP Gulbahar Sadiq Dogar caught eight policemen last month who were busy collecting money from passengers at the General Bus Stand. All of the eight were suspended and an investigation was launched against them, the sources said.
The Matani police arrested two policemen in May on the charge of robbing people in their respective area.
Two more policemen were taken into custody last month. The two along with a rickshaw driver used to deprive passengers of their purses. One of the affected passengers lodged an FIR, saying that he was travelling in a rickshaw when the driver used some chemical to make him unconscious and later he deprived him of Rs50,000.
Besides, the Faqirabad police have launched an inquiry against an official driver, Mohammad Ali, who was accused by a citizen of extorting money from him.