In Punjab IGP’s hometown, police ‘refuse’ to register kidnapping, vehicle snatching FIR

LAHORE: Succumbing to the pressure of a local MPA, Lodhran DPO has allegedly refused to register an FIR of a kidnapping, torture and vehicle snatching incident occurred eight days back despite everything was proved in initial investigations, The News has learnt.

The complainant, Rao Ashraf, has alleged that DPO Abdul Rauf Qaisrani in the presence of a local MPA had said, “Do whatever you want to do. I will not register any FIR of the incident.” He further reportedly said that he knew about the fact that the incident of car snatching was real but he won’t go for an FIR.

On March 15, 2022, five people riding a bike intercepted the car of one Ashraf when he was on his way to a court along with his cousin. The accused gave a good thrashing to the victim, tore his clothes and snatched the vehicle. They let the victim’s cousin go home. However, they kidnapped Ashraf and took him to a deserted place.

The victim’s brother made a call at Rescue 15 for help. City Lodhran police responded to the call and recovered the victim. However, police started showing reluctance in recovering the vehicle due to the reasons best known to SHO PS City Lodhran Muzammil. SHO also allegedly misreported the incident to DPO, saying the complainant had himself handed over car to the accused as a security against monetary dispute. ‘The hatched plot’ was exposed through the application filed by the accused at 6 am on the day of the incident. The victim approached the DPO on next day and described the incident in detail.

The DPO took action and directed the SHO to recover the vehicle within half an hour. The SHO once against delayed the recovery. The victim told the DPO that SHO was not showing willingness to recover the vehicle over which DPO reprimanded the SHO and asked him to recover the vehicle. Finally, the vehicle was recovered and parked at police station. The DPO had directed the SHO to call both parties and take action against the accused if they were proved guilty. The SHO kept on calling complainant at the police station time and again but he allegedly never asked the accused to join the investigations. The victim also called Inspector General’s Complaint Center 1787 time and again and told the communication officer about the delay in the registration of FIR. The DPO office after receiving

directions from IG’s complaint center called the complainant to appear before the DPO on Friday last. The victim reached the DPO office in the morning. He was kept waiting at the police station for hours till the arrival of a local MPA. As the MPA met the DPO, the complainant was also called in.

As the complainant requested to give personal hearing and register FIR against them if they were proved guilty, the DPO allegedly straightforwardly refused to register the FIR. He said he would ask DSP City to hear both parties and decide the matter on merit. The complainant told The News that they have been visiting DSP office for the last three days but nobody is giving heed to their request. He alleged that the SHO was hand in glove with the accused while the local MPA had also allegedly become hurdle in the way of justice. SHO City Lodhran Muzammil talking to The News said that both parties have a monetary dispute. To a question whether a person could take any illegal action if he had monetary dispute with anyone, he failed to give any satisfactory reply.

DPO Abdul Rauf Qaisrani denied the allegation of MPA’s intervention, saying the matter is being looked into on merit. When asked why he felt need to say the complainant in the presence of the MPA that he would not register FIR at any cost, the DPO said he was not bound to give clarification to this correspondent. To another question that SHO had been misreporting to him from the day of incident, he said he would look into the matter on merit. The News also tried to contact the local MPA but his both cell numbers were not responding.