Three policemen held for ‘blackmailing’ couples

LAHORE: The Ghalib Market police on Monday booked and arrested the three constables who were allegedly kidnapped and tortured by the son of Punjab Housing Minister Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed and his fellows for harassing his friend who was found in his car along with a girl last month.

The police reportedly recovered dozens of video footages the constables had made by their mobile phones to [allegedly] blackmail the couples.

Many of the boys and girls were said to be students of various educational institutions and children of well-heeled families, an official privy to the information told Dawn.

He said the police authorities had traced over 60 footages from two cell phones of the constables.

Some of the footages showed the policemen escorted the couples to local banks, forcing them to withdraw amount from ATMs [for cops], he said.

Last month suspects were tortured by minister’s son, friends for filming a couple

The modus operandi of the constables was that they used to move on bikes in Gulberg areas, film couples in [parked] cars and forcibly enter the vehicles and extort money, the official said, adding that the policemen would exact Rs20,000 to Rs40,000.

Model Town SP (Operations) Ali Waseem confirmed to Dawn that [initially] footages of over 20 couples had been found from two cell phones of the constables.

The SP said the cops would take couples to ATM cabins to exact money from them.

On the other hand, the [cops] arrest in the second case lodged against them with the Ghalib Market police some 40 days after the incident raised questions on the investigation process and the police action.

It is being said that the police arrested the constables after pressure exerted by the PTI government.

The [new] FIR was registered against Mujahid Squad constables Nadeem Iqbal, Usman Mushtaq and Usman Saeed while the incident had occurred on Oct 1.

The case was registered on the complaint of inspector Rehan Zia on the directions of the Operations DIG under section 382 of Pakistan Penal Code and 155/C of Police Order 2002.

The Section 382 of the PPC reads, “Theft after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of the theft”.

Some of the police circles have termed it an ‘excessive step’ saying the registration of two criminal cases [of the same incident] might create issues in later stages if pursued in the court of law.

Similarly, they said, the police authorities would have to justify the registration of case [against the constables] after a gap of over 40 days.

They pointed out that the police authorities weakened the case against the cops by mentioning only section 382 despite the fact that it had clearly stated in the second FIR that they blackmailed many couples.

The police must add section of extortion charges in the criminal case as is evident from the revelations made in the FIR against them.

To a question, the Model Town SP dispelled the impression that the police were giving any favour to Hassan Mahmood, son of Mr Rasheed.

“We received clear instructions from the IGP to submit challan against the son of the minister, his accomplices and the constables,” Mr Waseem said adding that both had been held guilty of the offence.

According to the charges against Hassan Mahmood and his fellows, they had bundled the cops into their vehicles and tortured them while travelling on roads the same day when they (constables) allegedly harassed a couple.

Published in Dawn, November 20th, 2018