Two days after the recovery of an allegedly kidnapped man from the office of the excise department’s director general (DG) in Karachi, the DG accused police on Monday of misusing their powers and illegally taking away a “habitual criminal” who was in the excise personnel’s custody.
In a statement, the official further criticised the police personnel who raided his office for damaging the reputation of his department and vowed to take legal action against them.
Police had claimed the recovery of the allegedly kidnapped man, identified as Ali Hussain, from the DG’s office on Saturday, saying that a ransom of Rs2 million had been demanded for his release.
Pirabad SHO Wasim Ahmed had said at the time that police had carried out a raid at the DG’s office on main II Chundrigar Road, recovered Hussain and arrested one excise constable and two private persons.
He had added that neither senior excise officers were aware that Hussain was kept in their office nor the excise department had informed the police about his arrest from their area of jurisdiction.
Refuting the police’s allegations, the DG said in his statement that on Saturday morning, between 4:15am and 4:30am, the Pirabad SHO and other police personnel dressed in “plain clothes, without contacting the senior officers, misused their uniform and duty and overstepped their authority, climbed over the walls [of his office], took the watchman hostage at gunpoint and beat him”.
He further claimed that Hussain had been arrested in a case pertaining to the possession of 8.2 kilogrammes of drugs and had been booked.
Hussain was a “habitual drug dealer with previous criminal record”, the official said.With regards to the arrests made by police during the raid at his office, the DG said, “An illegal FIR (first-information report) was lodged against Excise Constable Jan Muhammad and two other persons who were assigned cleanliness work.”
He added that senior officers of the excise police were in touch with senior officials of Sindh Police so that “legal action can be taken against this illegal act of SHO Wasim Ahmed”.
Meanwhile, police have booked the arrested excise constable and two private persons on charges of kidnapping for ransom, dacoity and forcible entry into Hussain’s house in New Mianwali Colony of Orangi Town.
They were arrested after an FIR was registered on behalf of Hussain’s son, Kashif Afridi.
According to the FIR, around 15 men and one woman travelling in “two police-like mobiles” arrived at Hussain’s house at around 5am on October 1.
Three of them wore “police-like uniforms” and they broke the door of their house. Seven or eight of them were carrying sub-machine guns and pistols, Afridi said in the FIR.
They took gold ornaments weighing two tolas from a box, snatched Rs150,000 and a mobile phone from his brother, Mohammed Shoaib, and took away his father, Hussain, along with his cell phone, he added.
The complainant said he noted the registration number of one of the vehicles, which was GS-7074. While leaving his house, the kidnappers also took away the CCTV camera and DVR from their home.
He said the same day at around 8pm, he received a call from his father’s phone and the caller demanded Rs2 million in ransom for his release. The caller also threatened him of dire consequences if he failed to arrange the money, he added.
