Some officials of the prime crime-busting agency of the province – the Sindh police’s Crime Investigation Department (CID) – are allegedly involved in kidnappings for ransom, Pakistan Today has learnt.
With the Sindh government emphasising on curbing the extortion mafias, the involvement of CID personnel – supposed to work for the safety and security of citizens – in abductions on gunpoint in broad daylight comes as a shock to the people already concerned by the ever deteriorating law and order situation in the city.
Well-placed sources within the CID told Pakistan Today that the illegal activities of the law enforcement officers surfaced when a businessman was kidnapped along with his son and released after payment of one million rupees as ransom at the agency’s headquarters.
“Two CID officers kidnapped Sher Dil, his eight-year-old son and their driver, who were travelling in a Toyota Corolla, from the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area on March 21,” the sources said. “The kidnappers roamed around in the city for hours along with the hostages but later in the evening released the minor boy and the driver.”
Afterwards, the kidnappers contacted the kidnapped businessman’s friends, demanding a ransom of Rs 10 million for his release. The payoff amount was reduced to Rs 1 million with bargaining over a 24-hour period.
“One of the hostage’s friends, however, being a cousin of Adviser to Chief Minister on Relief Haleem Adil Shaikh, contacted the Sindh government official for help,” the sources said. “The adviser sent a man with the agreed ransom money at the Do Talwar roundabout as asked by the kidnappers.”
The kidnappers, however, kept changing their location, from Do Talwar to Teen Talwar, then to the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine and later to the Clifton beach and the parties could not meet.
After a while, the adviser’s envoy got a call from the kidnappers, instructing him to reach the CID headquarters located near the PIDC building.
“Following the abductors’ instruction, the man arrived at the place and handed over the ransom money to a CID officer named Babar, who then released the kidnapped businessman,” the sources alleged.
After the whole episode, the chief minister’s adviser told the story to the Sindh Inspector General of Police and the chief minister among other high-ups, asking them to investigate the matter.
A day or two later, a deputy superintendent of police stationed at the CID visited the advisor and confessed before him the involvement of his agency’s personnel in the crime while also apologising for the incident.
“After the DSP’s apology, the businessman’s vehicle was also handed over to the adviser,” the sources said.
Talking with Pakistan Today, Shaikh confirmed that a man from his office man got Dil released from the CID headquarters after paying off Rs 1 million to a person who identified himself as Babar. “The vehicle of the businessman was returned by a CID DSP,” Shaikh said.
“The CID’s purpose is to ensure protection of common citizens but the involvement of its personnel in a kidnapping for ransom raises questions,” he said. “I made the effort to reach the kidnappers which led me to the revelation that some CID personnel are kidnapping businessmen and releasing them after being paid huge ransom amounts.”
