BAHAWALNAGAR: District police on Friday booked two persons, including an official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police, on charge of blackmailing an Islamabad-based businessman and demanding bribe from him after adding his name in the online criminal record portal of the Punjab Police in a closed case of kidnap-cum-murder registered with the Minchinabad Police Station about four years back.

Action was taken on the directions of the Punjab inspector general of police (IGP) who had ordered the Bahawalnagar district police officer (DPO) to probe a complaint made to him by the businessman in an open court by a KPK-based businessman of Islamabad on June 8.

According to the FIR registered with the Minchinabad Police Station, Syed Baseer Shah Shirazi of Pakhwal Chowk, Mansehra (KP), who was residing in Islamabad for business, received a call from Waheed Murad, the in-charge of Lorry Adda check post, Mansehra on June 5 and was asked to reach the police post. He was told by Murad that a team of Bahawalnagar police on two vehicles arrived to arrest him in a criminal case.

When Mr Shirazi reached the post along with his family members, the post in-charge revealed that he was accused in a murder case (number 538/19) registered against him with the Minchinabad Police Station of Bahawalnagar district and the case could be checked in the online portal of Punjab Police.

Suspects add innocent citizens’ names in online portal; two booked in scam

During the argument, Murad and his accomplice, Salahuddin, who introduced himself as an official of an intelligence agency, demanded Rs1m bribe from Shirazi to remove his name from the case as well as from the online portal. Shirazi requested the officials to give him some days to arrange the amount. However, the family complained to the IG office when they came to know that his name was not in the registered case but was showing only in online criminal record portal.

After attending the open court of the Punjab IGP in Lahore when the Shirazi family was on their way to Bahawalnagar for further legal proceedings and reached near Sutlej river, Shirazi received a call from Salahuddin who threatened him with adding his name in another case.

The FIR sought removal of the name from the online police criminal record portal and a departmental probe to uncover the gang involved in adding names of the innocent people in the online portal.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Shirazi alleged that some officials of the KP and Punjab police had established an inter-provincial gang and they were involved in targeting well-to-do persons for minting money from them through blackmail. He alleged that Salahuddin was also a government official and working in the Pakistan Navy.

Shirazi and his family members said after the IGP’s instructions, when they appeared before Bahawalnagar District Police Officer Faisal Gulzar on June 9 and informed him about the incident, they were asked to wait for an hour as police checked the IT record. Police initially disclosed the names of the local police officials who could be involved in the crime. However, later the DPO office asked them to wait for 15 days for the details of the local handlers of the gang, the family claimed.

On the other hand, an official of the DPO office, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that it was impossible to add the name of any person in the online portal without involvement of officials of the police station concerned. The official explained that the IT branch of every police station had a unique username and password and it was only known by the IT cell in-charge or the SHO of the police station concerned. The official revealed that last night, the name of Syed Baseer Shah Sherazi was again added to the Punjab Police portal in another FIR (number 246/17) registered with the Minchinabad Police Station. Another source said the name of Shirazi was added to the case record by the account of the SHO of Minchinabad Police Station.

District police sources confirmed that an inter-provincial gang of police officials was involved in blackmailing renowned or rich people for a long time by adding their names in closed heinous cases of non-bailable offences. They said the case (number 538/19) in which the name of Baseer Shah Shirazi was showing in police portal was a kidnap-cum-murder case of a pregnant woman and it was closed two years back.

The sources claimed that a renowned religious personality belonging to Rawalpindi was also blackmailed after his name was added to the same case (538/19) registered with the Minchinabad Police Station and his name removed after the intervention of higher-ups some three days back.

DPO’s spokesperson Shehzad Ishfaq said a case had been registered against two nominated men on the complaint of Shirazi and the involvement of local police officials in this crime was being investigated.

Adeel Ashraf, the IT in-charge of district police, said the name of Baseer Shah Shirazi had been removed from the online record portal.

Published in Dawn, June 11th, 2022