Many car jacking incidents remained unresolved as in most of the cases the police failed to recover the stolen vehicles.
Proper data about the cars recovered is also unavailable leading to hassles in returning the cars to their rightful owners.
This was stated in a petition filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), in which the petitioner, advocate Ammar Sehri, cited the Islamabad Inspector General of Police (IGP), Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) and DSP Anti Car Jacking Cell (ACLC) as the respondents.
The petitioner stated in the court of Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddique: “This is an alarming scenario; the data of the vehicles which are apprehended or recovered from time to time in the normal routine is not available. No record of these vehicles is maintained. The cars’ owners are also not told where the vehicles are kept.” He added that it was observed that fake registration plates were put on most of the vehicles retrieved, which were then given to police officers and their families for their private use.
The petitioner requested the court to direct all the respondents to produce the record of all the vehicles recovered or apprehended and the place where they were kept for the purpose of examination and identification. He also requested that the court direct the respondents to provide details about the number of vehicles are handed over to their original owners.
The petition stated that notices had been issued to the respondents after a similar petition was fixed before the court of Justice Riaz Ahmad Khan. Sehri said his car had been stolen several months ago after which he had registered an FIR with the Shalimar police station. After a few days, he was informed that the police had recovered vehicles that matched the descriptions he had given of his stolen car. He had visited the ACLC office where the recovered cars were parked. “I identified my car as it had an Islamabad High Court Bar Association sticker on its wind shield. However, my car did not have number plates,” he said.
The petitioner added that after he informed the ACLC staff that he had identified the vehicle, they promised to send the car for a forensic examination.
Sehri said: “The next day, when I visited the office, only a few old vehicles were parked there. I was told by the ACLC personnel that the vehicles had been taken somewhere else.”
He added that to date, the whereabouts of his vehicle had not been communicated to him. He alleged that his car had been given to someone else instead of being returned to its rightful owner. The court adjourned the matter until January 30th, saying that some cases of a similar nature were pending before the court and that these cases would be heard jointly on the same day.
