Police register forgery case against members of organised gang

The Karachi police have registered a criminal case under sections of forgery for the purpose of cheating and committing fraud against members of an organised gang that has managed to get some 200 plus fake cases registered against dozens of innocent people.

An FIR was registered at the Preedy police station in District South on the complaint of Hafiz Mudassar Javed against Amber Shahab, Nasir Ali Bhatti, Abdul Rehman, Aneesa Asghar and others under sections 468, 471 and 34 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The case was registered following a legal procedure, recommendations of the legal branch of the police department and the approval of the DIG South Zone, Karachi.

According to the official record, the organised gang is comprised of some police officials and private persons, and it is headed by a senior retired police officer, while Shahab alone has got 43 FIRs registered against 371 people.

The FIR at the Preedy police station has been registered on the allegations of using a forged sale agreement of a property for lodging fake cases against the complainant. The said sale agreement was proved to have been forged during a forensic audit conducted on the orders of a court in Karachi.

According to the findings of two separate official inquiries of the police conducted by DIG Aamir Farooqi, the said gang had used promissory notes and guarantee cheques submitted with an insurance company, the Continental Insurance Company Limited, owned by a retired senior police officer to register cases against innocent people to extort money through blackmailing.

However, the said retired police officer has denied all charges levelled against him, and has rejected the inquiry report, saying that he had adopted a legal procedure to recover his due payments.

In the light of the findings of the police inquiry, the Sindh police authorities had also initiated their proceedings against 17 police personnels who were found guilty of lodging fake FIRs against innocent people with the connivance of the said gang members.

The 17 police personnels have been suspended, and the procedure to award them punishments under the Efficiency & Disciplinary Rules, 1988, has also been initiated.

Peshawar resident Majid Khan, a PhD scholar at the Peshawar University, and Abdul Rehman, a trader in Karachi, both victims of the said gang, had approached the Sindh police authorities complaining about the registration of five fake cases against them and other citizens by the organised group.

Shahab admitted before the inquiry officer, DIG Farooqi, that after getting money from the citizens nominated as accused persons in the cases, he had withdrawn some of the cases registered on his complaints.

Farooqi had recommended departmental action against Sub-Inspector Syed Muhammad Abbas, and ASIs Muhammad Hafeez and Muhammad Akram of the Azizabad police station; SIs Muhammad Qasim, Syed Rashid Hussain and Shakeel Ahmed, and ASIs Shakeel Ahmed and Fazal Kareem of the New Karachi police station; and ASI Liaquat Solangi of the North Nazimabad police station.

He had also recommended criminal and preventive actions against Amber Shahab, Muhammad Rizwan, Muhammad Naveed and Nasir Ali Bhatti after finding them guilty of registering hundreds of FIRs against innocent citizens based on fake and forged documents, and open and guarantee cheques to extort huge amounts by way of blackmailing and misuse of law.