Trader moves PHC against police officer

PESHAWAR: A trader on Wednesday told the Peshawar High Court (PHC) that a police officer had filed a false case against him and was also hurling threats at him.

Ghulam Rasool, president of the Cloth Market in Nowshera, filed the writ petition against district police officer Nowshera through his lawyer Sabitullah Khan Khalil.The lawyer said the petitioner was a law-abiding citizen and the District Police Officer Wahid Mehmood, in connivance with others, was pressuring, harassing and insulting him.

He said the police officer registered 11 fabricated cases against the petitioner in a period of two months. The lawyer maintained that the petitioner as the representative of business community in Nowshera had submitted written grievance petition with the Inspector General of Police, but no action or inquiry whatsoever was initiated regarding the matter.

He claimed the said police officer lodged a false FIR against the petitioner about a vehicle worth Rs7 million and then confiscated it even after clearance report issued by a forensic laboratory. He alleged the vehicle was unlawfully used by the police officer for his personal use.

The legal counsel said that due to the process of forensic laboratory test and illegal and unfair use of the vehicle, its market rate fell by up to Rs3 million.He requested the court to direct the IGP to take strict action against the DPO Nowshera for what he called misdeeds, ill-mannered attitude, taking law into his own hands and using it for his ulterior motives in the shape of departmental proceedings.The IGP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, DIG Police Peshawar, RPO Mardan, DPO Nowshera, and provincial government through the advocate general have been made parties in the petition.