SHO, SIO among seven charge-sheeted for kidnappings

Police charge-sheeted a station house officer and a station investigation officer among seven suspects for facilitating the kidnappings of three Nigerian nationals in an international drugs deal.

The foreigners - Amica, Lucky and Oguchi – were kept as a pawn against the payment for a drugs consignment, including charas, cocaine and other contrabands, sent through sea to the African state, the charge sheet read.

It said the abductees were recovered by the police from the captivity of Nasrullah Bizenjo alias Nusrat, an alleged international smuggler, from a bungalow in Defence Housing Authority’s Phase VII on November 14, 2020.

But instead of handing the captives to the Nigerian consulate for their repatriation to their country, then SHO Sub-Inspector Muhammad Ali Niazi and SIO Inspector Waseem Abro, transferred them back to the kidnapers against a bribe.

It said the police officers received Rs7 million from the kidnappers at a restaurant at Do Darya four days later. The kidnappers demanded ransom from the families of the captives to cover the payment of their deal.

The Anti-Violent Crime Cell arrested Haji Saleem, Jan Muhammad alias Jani, Ali Nawaz Zehri, Adeeb Shah and Dilbar Malano along with the two officers for their alleged involvement in the offence.

The report read that the parties in African states would send their agents to Bizenjo to keep them as surety until the payment for the smuggled drugs was made through hawala and hundi and other illegal means via Gulf states, including the UAE (Dubai) and Qatar.

It said the foreigners would stay with the Pakistani drugs suppliers for three to four months during which the payment was supposed to be made. However, it is said that in the following case, the buyer party had defaulted.

It stated that the kidnappers had released Oguchi after his family paid a “huge” amount to the kidnappers, but the other two foreigners were still kept in custody. IO Shariq Ahmed Siddiqui pleaded with the anti-terrorism courts administrative judge to approve the charge sheet and sent the suspects up for trial.