FAISALABAD: The Crime Investigation Agency police have allegedly been involved in malpractices, including releasing notorious drug traffickers and other criminals after taking bribe and custodial deaths etc seemingly because of poor monitoring by senior police officers.

In a recent case, CIA officials released notorious drug peddlers arrested with a heavy quantity of narcotics after receiving a hefty amount as bribe.

On being informed of the scam, Regional Police Officer Ghulam Mehmood Dogar had suspended five policemen -- sub-inspectors Afzal Cheema and Fahad Ali, assistant sub-inspector Ali Asghar, head constable Ansari Altaf and constable Shahzad Ashraf.

The RPO also ordered a departmental probe into the issue by appointing SSP (operations) as inquiry officer.

The RPO had mentioned in a letter sent to the then City Police Officer Ashfaq Ahmed, that it had been reported that the CIA staff personnel were involved in corrupt practices.

It said that notorious narcotics peddlers -- Faisal and Abdul Ghaffar -- were arrested and 40 packets of Charas (each weighing 1kg) were seized from their vehicle. On the information extracted from the arrested drug paddlers, the CIA police personnel rounded-up five other narcotics sellers, including the ringleader Lakha. However, all of them were released by the CIA personnel after receiving heavy bribe, the letter said.

In addition to it, it was revealed that a police official, Shahzad Ashraf, presently posted in the RPO office, had also close links with the CIA police officials involved in the scam. He has also been placed under suspension.

Former CPO Ashfaq Ahmed, now serving as the DIG (operations) Lahore, had appointed then SSP (operations) Ismail Rahman to probe into the matter, fix responsibility for the malpractice and submit a report along with recommendations by April 25 last.

Sources said the former SSP (operations) couldn’t conclude the report as he was transferred and now his successor Ali Raza would complete the process.

They said the suspended officials had interrogated Faisal and his driver Ghaffar, who disclosed that they were to supply the drugs to Lakha of Saleemi Chowk, Imran of Jhal, Sharif Pathan of Gulberg and Meran Pathan of Nishatabad.

Subsequently, the sources said, the CIA officials interrogated Lakha and others, but instead of handing them over to the police station concerned, set them free against heavy bribe.

They added that Ilyas, a private person, mediated between the police and the drug peddlers.

The sources said that because of poor monitoring, the CIA officials often arrest and interrogate suspects without bringing it to the knowledge of their senior officers.

In the past, action had been taken against policemen involved in corrupt practices, but they often succeeded in getting themselves cleared and again got posted.

In Nov 2017, former RPO Bilal Siddique Kamyana had suspended six CIA police officials, including Madina Town in charge Ahmed Muneel Shah, on charges of receiving Rs15 million from some suspects allegedly involved in illegal money transfer business (hundi) and setting them free.

Muneel Shah had been earlier been penalised by the former CPO Afzaal Kausar for illegally detaining a man, Rana Asim and releasing him after taking bribe.

Similarly, CIA Iqbal Town policemen, including SI Ali Imran and others had been suspended from services in Nov 2017 for torturing a suspect, Boota, to death. However, the policemen “settled” the matter by pressurising the widow of the deceased and were now again ‘serving’ the department.

The RPO told Dawn that the inquiry into alleged release of drug traffickers was yet to be concluded by the SSP (operations) Ali Raza. The SSP did not take the call when this correspondent tried to contact him for his comments.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2019