IGP suspends DSP ‘who raided and robbed trader’s house’

Sindh Inspector General of Police (IGP) Riffat Mukhtar Raja on Thursday suspended under-training Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Umair Tariq Bajari, a prime suspect in the case of theft of Rs20 million in a house robbery in the Orangi Town area few days ago.

Taking departmental action, the police department suspended DSP Bajari who has been under arrest and issued a notification in this regard mentioning his alleged involvement in the robbery. However, the suspended DSP can still draw his salary till his suspension is over.

“Umair Tariq Bajari, DSP (UT), previously attached with SSP District South, is hereby placed under suspension with immediate effect, on the grounds of pending departmental proceedings as well as his involvement in a case registered against him at the Pirabad police station in connection with the house robbery in Orangi Town. During the period of suspension, he will draw pay and allowances, as admissible to him under the rules,” read the notification.

Also, taking notice of the illegal raids allegedly conducted by DSP Bajari in Gulshan-e-Iqbal and Sohrab Goth, the IGP has appointed Zone South DIG Asad Raza as the investigation officer. The affected citizens have been called by the police to inquire into the illegal raids.

Talking to The News, DIG Raza said he would ensure a timely and impartial investigation and an affected citizen, Mansoor Sheikh, had been summoned for a statement, and statements of others would also be recorded.

It has been revealed that the two persons accompanying DSP Bajari during the Orangi Town raid were earlier dismissed from the service. Waqar Hussain Shah involved in the operation was dismissed from the police service, while Muhammad Waqas Tanoli alias Danish, was dismissed from another institution for improper conduct and involvement in crime.

Three cases are registered against Tanoli at the Saddar, Defence and Preedy police stations over different crimes including drug peddling. Meanwhile Shah was found a partner in the gutka factory operations in the limits of the Ferozabad police station. He used to collect bribes from various criminals within the jurisdiction of police station.

The Mehran car used in the robbery was owned by a man, Sajjad, who also took part in the Orangi raid and identified himself as the DSP’s reader. Another private person involved in the robbery has been identified as Latif. All private persons are politically influential.

The robbed trader is yet to receive the remaining amount and belongings. It has also been reported that a separate inquiry is likely to be initiated against former District South SSP Imran Qureshi as the raid was conducted on his direction. So far, SSP Qureshi has been removed from the post.

An impression was being made that SSP Qureshi was being saved and he should have been charged under the Section 109 of the Pakistan Penal Code, a senior police officer said, adding that this was not the case as an inquiry was under way and SSP Qureshi's past record was also being examined, especially during his postings in rural Sindh.

Four days on, the police have only been able to arrest DSP Bajari and his guards among the 15 to 20 suspects booked in the robbery case.

Police officials say search is under way for the arrest of other police personnel and private persons involved in the robbery. Raids were conducted at the residences of DSP Bajari’s private guards Khurram and Faizan by the Joint Investigation Committee, but no arrests were made in the raids.

It has been reported that the under-training and his team raided Mansoor Shaikh’s house in search of ASI Shakeel who is said to be a relative of Shaikh. ASI Shakeel was posted at the City Court’s Maalkhana and was removed after he was allegedly found involved in stealing drugs and supplying weapons to criminals from the Maalkhana. A case was registered against the ASI at the Sher Shah police station.

Remand extended

A court on Thursday extended police remand of detained under-training DSP Bajari by one day in a case pertaining to the recent robbery in Orangi Town, adds our correspondent.The DSP, along with his two guards, Constable Khurram Ali and Constable Farhan Ali, and over a dozen other unidentified policemen and private persons, has been booked on charges of raiding the house of trader Shakir Khan in Orangi Town on the night between November 18 and 19.

A whopping Rs20 million in cash, jewellery and other valuables were allegedly stolen during the raid.

Bajari, said to be an influential police officer, is the nephew of Saleem Bajari, a private secretary to former Sindh chief minister Murad Ali Shah. The investigation officer produced the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (West) Muhammad Abdullah Qadri on completion of his previous one-day physical remand. He requested an extension in Bajari's remand in police custody for further investigation.

The defence lawyer stated that the West DIG and SSP were aware of the raid in question as it was stated in an inquiry report that the South SSP had informed them on November 18 about the raid they would conduct in their district.

He said the West DIG and SSP should have been nominated in the case but instead they had been appointed inquiry officers to probe the matter, adding that the inquiry would be completed once the Defence SHO and South SSP Imran Qureshi were arrested.

To a question about the ground for extension in the suspect's remand, the IO stated that the custody of the suspect was needed for further questioning to arrest five private individuals. He requested for a seven-day extension in DSP Bajari's remand.

However, the magistrate handed over the suspect to the police for one more day with a direction to the IO to produce him on expiry of the remand.

An FIR was registered on Khan’s complaint at the Pirabad police station under the sections 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 395 (punishment for dacoity) and 365 (kidnapping) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) against Bajari, constables Khurram Ali and Farhan Ali, and 15 to 20 others, among whom some were in police uniform and others were in plain clothes.

“I am associated with the sanitary business and am a distributor for all sanitary companies. On November 19, armed individuals wearing police uniforms and plain clothes arrived in a black Vigo, a police mobile and a Mehran, and on motorbikes,” reads the FIR.

“They started searching my house, holding all my family hostage in a room. My brother Aamir and I were put in the mobile with our money and other belongings. Our faces were covered with cloths, so we couldn’t see anything. They left us on the Baloch Colony flyover, fleeing with our cash and other belongings.”

The complainant said the Pirabad SHO was requested to register a case, but he refused, and it was later revealed that it was not a raid but a robbery. He said they were then called to the Defence police station, where the Defence SHO returned Rs13.5 million, 50 tolas of gold and other valuables to him.