KARACHI – Five police officials have reportedly been found in-volved inextorting money from businessmen in Karachi, West Zone Deputy InspectorGeneral (DIG) Amir Farooqi said on Friday.
Of these, three policemen namely Liaquatabad SHO Rao Shabbir, Pak Colony’sConstable Rana Saleem and Surjani’s Constable Farzand Ali have beensus-pended pending an inquiry into their con-duct.Sharing details of the case, DIG West said that Su-per Market police hadregistered a First Informa-tion Report (FIR) under Sections 385 (puttingper-son in fear of injury in order to commit extortion), 386 (extortion byputting a person in fear of death or grievous hurt) and 34 (acts done byseveral per-sons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan PenalCode and Section 7 (punishment for acts of terrorism) of the Anti TerrorismAct on the com-plaint of Syed Tabish Ejaz, an owner of a rent-a-carbusiness.
Recently, four suspects repeatedly visited his shop, blackmailing him andthreatening to destroy his business if he did not pay Rs25,000 to them on amonthly basis as bhatta (extortion).In this regard, the accused persons received bhatta twice from him.
On May 21, one accused Rana Saleem sent a Whatsapp message to him anddemanded extortion. When the complainant was paying him the extor-tionmoney near APWA Girls School at Dak Khana Liaquatabad, a police partyreached there and ar-rested the suspect red-handed.
During interrogation, the arrested accused, Rana Saleem reportedlydisclosed that “DSP Mehmood Khan is supporting such illegal activities.”
DIG Amir Farooqi said that the role of DSP Meh-mood Khan in supportingcriminals in illegal ac-tivities was “gross misconduct.” Therefore, he hasrecommended to Additional Inspector General (AIG) Mushtaq Ahmed Mahar toremove him from the position.
Moreover, DIG Farooqi revealed that one inspector posted at Kharadar inSouth Zone was also alleg-edly involved in the extortion racket.
The senior officer said that during the initial probe, the held suspectRana Saleem told the investigators that his relative, also named RanaSaleem, and con-stable Farzand were taking bhatta from business-men andothers by threatening them.
Rana Saleem revealed that SHO Kharadar Rana Khushi is also a relative ofhis and has been run-ning his ‘special party’ there. Moreover, InspectorRana Naveed and Liaquatabad SHO Rao Shabbir, also his relatives, weresupporting Khushi, the in-terrogation report states.
The police investigation report also revealed that absconder policeman,Rana Saleem was also alleg-edly running a drug business in the SITE area.
The DIG West said that the arrested accused was running a gang in whichgirls were also being used for criminal activities.
“The held accused is running a network of crimi-nals in which fivepolicemen were also involved,” said the DIG, adding that a “special partyof police” was being used for criminal activities.