–Same police officers had accused Mahmoodur Rasheed’s son, his friends of kidnapping, torturing them
LAHORE: A case has been registered against three Punjab police constables for harassing, filming and blackmailing couples in the provincial capital for money.
The case had first become public knowledge last month when Pakistan Today had broken the news of the cops’ conduct and released videos that showed them harassing and blackmailing couples in the city.
The same police officials had also accused Punjab Minister for Housing Mahmoodur Rasheed’s son and his friends of kidnapping them, snatching their weapons, torturing them and hurling threats.
The policemen, named Nadeem Iqbal, Usman Mushtaq and Usman Saeed, had claimed that they allegedly caught a young couple in a car. As the couple was being taken to the police station, the man — identified as Ali Mustafa — had called Mian Hasan, the son of Punjab Minister for Housing Mahmoodur Rasheed.
Police had further claimed that the suspects, led by Hasan, snatched guns from the constables, bundled them into their cars and drove away before dropping the kidnapped policemen at different places and fled away.
However, on Monday, an inquiry and analysis of the police officials’ phones found several videos of couples being blackmailed and even tortured.
The officers were arrested after a case was registered against them following a probe by Gulberg SP on the orders of DIG (Investigation). They were charged under sections 155-C and 382 of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The FIR against them states that these police officers used to blackmail couples by making their videos and demanding money in return. “The suspects tortured Fiza Jameel and Ali Mustafa and snatched Rs2,000 from them,” the FIR mentioned, adding the suspects also asked the couple to withdraw Rs5,000 from the ATM and give it to them.
SHO Jamal, in the FIR, said that the police constables’ actions were “against the police discipline and utterly illegal”, and resulted in bringing a bad name to the police.