Unbridled police, revenue department mock judiciary

Islamabad : A law-abiding citizen, even in the ruler’s town, has been fraudulently deprived of property worth about a billion rupees and is trying to get justice for over 2 years, running from pillar to post, but making no headway.

Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed claims that he is the lawful owner of around 75 kanal of land in Tarnol and Jhangi Syedan area of Islamabad, which he had bought back in the year 2000 while he was living in the UK.

He received the shock of his life when he came to know in the year 2016 that his land has been sold and transferred to some other person without his knowledge and the new claimant of ownership of his land have brought bulldozers to level and grade the land.

He immediately rushed to the piece of land he owned to find out as to what was going on with his property. On reaching the spot he was told by the people operating the bulldozers that they have been engaged by a housing society to level the area.

The manager of Nisar contacted the offices of the society and he was told that the land has been purchased by the Society and the transfer of the land was done back in September 2003. They also presented some documents of transfer of land but those turned out to be fake, as neither there were the signatures of Nisar Ahmed, nor the thumb impressions, a basic requirement for the transfer of property in any such case.

Chaudhry Nisar approached the Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), Ms Rabia Aurangzeb, who ordered an inquiry and the forensic of the property transfer documents on July 12, 2016. But the directions of the ADC(R) went unnoticed and no action was initiated on the directions.

That was the beginning of the long story of a blatant fraud by the ‘qabza mafia’ operating in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as well as the power they wield in the power corridors.

The poor owner of the land, Nisar, believing in the supremacy of law, embarked upon an arduous journey of legal and criminal investigations involving the district administration, the police and the judiciary to get his property back.

Having been frustrated from all offices he eventually approached the Islamabad High Court where the Judge Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb immediately noticed the malafide intentions and malpractices in the case and asked as to why he (Chaudhry Nisar Ahmed) has yet not filed a case and registered the FIR (First Information Report) against the culprits.

On the directions of the Judge Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb, Chaudhry Nisar got the FIR registered with the Margalla Police Station under sections 420/468/471 PPC on May 19, 2018. After filing of the FIR the Islamabad Police started investigations and once again the manipulations by the ‘qabza mafia’ kept the facts being turned around, mutilated and manipulated, which frustrated the poor complainant to the verge of insanity. Having spent most part of his life in the UK he was aghast at the police investigations system in Pakistan.

Eventually, he managed to approach the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Islamabad one day who kindly appointed the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Asmatullah Junejo, an honest senior officer, to hold the inquiry and submit his findings in the case.

AIG Asmatullah Junejo conducted an exhaustive inquiry into the case and finally submitted the conclusion of his findings on 6-6-2018 which read:

“After detailed probe into the matter the undersigned is of the view:

1) The agreement written on the serial No. 3189 dated 26-02-2003 for sale of land owned by the complainant is a forged document.

2) SHO PS Margalla is hereby directed to register the FIR u/s 420/468471 PPC, on the application of the complainant. Offence u/s 419 PPC be included after preliminary investigation and verification of stamp paper from FIA or NADRA.”

He also ordered the Investigation Officer in the case to arrest two culprits involved in the fraud from his office where they were present to participate in the investigations. However, after arresting the two persons, Muhammad Najeeb and Maqsood Khan, from the office of the AIG Asmatullah Junejo, the Investigation Officer (IO) ASI Khalid Mehmood, released both the persons from the Margalla Police Station for unknown reasons, which are obviously known to everyone.

Noticing the malafide intentions of the Margalla Police officials the complainant got the investigations in the case transferred to the CIA where the Superintendent of Police Sheikh Zubair started investigating the case and was making headway in the right directions.

But all of a sudden SP Sheikh Zubair was transferred and in his place SP Gulfam Nasir took over the charge of the office of the SP CIA. Despite the clear findings of the AIG (Operations) Asmatullah Junejo and the directions of the court of law to conduct the forensic of the transfer of property documents to ascertain authenticity, this is not being done by the concerned officials in the Islamabad Police.

The fake ‘sale agreement’ the ‘qabza mafia’ has prepared and submitted in the court is yet to be recovered and investigated by the police for forensic. Evidently, the police also are not willing to produce the document which will prove the fraud. However, a copy of the ‘fake sale agreement’ is available in the record of the court of law, yet the police is not willing to get the copy of it for the much needed forensic to prove authenticity of the document.

The financial corruption, official manipulation, and influence of ‘qabza mafia’ has practically immobilized the judiciary which finds itself unable to reign in the unscrupulous elements in the police and the revenue departments where such cases of massive corruption are glaringly visible in this one simple case.

When contacted, the Deputy Inspector-General Police (Operations), Faisal Ali Raja said that the investigations are yet not concluded. “The case has been sent to Legal Branch for legal opinion,” he added.

He further explained that it was actually the Revenue Department case. He said ADC (R) wrote the report against the aggrieved party while the Deputy Commissioner Islamabad found ambiguity in the case and directed to send the document(s) for forensic audit.

“Similarly”, he added, “the Chief Commissioner also directed to carry out forensic audit of the document(s) for authentication”. However, he said that the accused party avoided producing original documents of the agreement.

The former Superintendent of Police (SP) CIA, Zubair Shaikh, clearly wrote in his final report in the case before he was transferred from his office that: “original sale-agreement was not provided to the Investigation Officer while the same was available with the court of law. This clearly shows malafide intentions of the accused party in the case.”

The new SP CIA, Gulfam Nasir, when contacted for his opinion in the case, said that the matter was not a cognizable offence and the police should not have taken up this case in the first place. “Right from the start this case should have been investigated by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and not by the Islamabad Police,” Gulfam Nasir said.

Yet another intriguing aspect in the case is that the then Station House Officer (SHO), Margalla PS, who prepared the ‘quashment’ report after one-sided investigation, when contacted said that the case was transferred to CIA before the submission of ‘quashment’ report in the court of law.

He conceded that the CIA was unable to reach any conclusion without acquiring original revenue transfer documents from the Revenue Department. He also conceded that no effort was made to acquire the report or the copy of the revenue record submitted in the court of law. As such it was never sent for forensic audit to ascertain the authenticity of the document.

The whole process in the Islamabad Police Department during the course of investigations in this case seems flawed wherein the junior officials apparently have joined hands to prove their superior officers wrong by meddling with the facts, manipulating evidences, and even defying direct orders from the officer of as high a rank as the Assistant Inspector General (AIG).

There are allegations of large sums of money exchanging hands in this case but that obviously is hard to prove. At the same time more intriguing aspects in the case are as to why the concerned officials in the Islamabad Police have been avoiding to send the ‘transfer deed’ to the FIA for forensic audit? If the document is not being provided by the accused party, why the police never tried to get the copy from the record of the court of law? Why the Investigation Officer (IO) or the SHO Margalla PS released two persons who were arrested from the office of the AIG (Operations) on the conclusion of inquiry by him? Why the police is still reluctant to arrest the nominated accused despite court order? Why the accused party is still not producing original documents of the sale-agreement?