Rawalpindi - Police booked a cook of Punjab police in a fake narcotics case, allegedly on the influence of SSP (Traffic) and SP (Investigation), instead of investigating the allegations levelled by the widow of Shaheed SSP Hilal Khan against him for stealing her jewellery from her annexe at Police Line 1 where he was serving as chef, reliable sources revealed to The Nation here on Tuesday.
Sources added that the cook Wazir Hussain, 28, was son of Mehboob Hussain (late), a cop of Punjab who died during duty in 1985. He is a resident of Khurali area of Jatli. Sources said that before roping Hussain in an alleged fake drug case, the SP (investigation) detained him illegally for four days in police station Civil Line and later he was produced in a court of law which sent him to Adyala Jail, sources said.
Sources said that the poor mother of the accused approached pubic representatives of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) in Gujar Khan, besides filing applications with CM and PM Secretariats, against police injustice.
As a result, the PM and CM assigned the task to intelligence agencies to probe into the mater, which also submitted their reports with the PM and CM secretariats declaring the cook as innocent.
Later, a court of additional sessions judge granted bail to the accused in the drug case, sources informed.
According to sources, Hussain was employed in the annexe of SSP Hilal Khan (martyred) in Police Line as chef where the SSP’s widow on September 8 accused him of stealing her gold locket and ring.
The chef denied the allegations on which the lady called SSP (Traffic) Ashfaq Khan, who also resides in Police Line.
The SSP arrived and started grilling the cook, slapped him and used abusive language against his parents. On this, the cook was annoyed and he started quarrelling the SSP, the sources said, adding that the SSP called SP (Investigation) Haroon Joya who arrived there.
SP Haroon Joya shifted Hussain to PS Civil Line and locked him up there without filing any case against him.
The sources disclosed that police registered a fake narcotics case (number 595 under section 9-C/CNSC) of recovery of 1,050 grams heroin against Wazir on 13/9/2014 and sent him to Adyala Jail. Police did not show the arrest of Hussain despite several visits paid by the family members, sources informed.
Talking to this scribe at the door of her annexe, widow of SSP Hilal Khan (martyred) confirmed that Hussain was serving as cook in her house.
She said that he committed a robbery in her house and she handed him over to SSP (Traffic) Ashfaq for further inquiry. When asked whether Hussain and SSP wrestled each other, she replied in distressed voice: “No brawl occurred. I don’t know anything. Ashfaq knows all the matter.” She also showed her complete unawareness about registration of narcotics case against her cook.
SP Investigation Haroon Joya, when approached, rebuffed all the allegations and said that the case was registered against Hussain purely on merit. “Wazir Hussain has been involved in suspicious activities such as heroin smuggling since long while using SSP House as cover. Police have been keeping a close eye on him and he was caught red-handed with heroin,” he said.  
SSP Traffic Region Ashfaq Khan, despite repeated attempts, neither attended his cell phone nor replied to the text message sent to him by this scribe to know his point of view.
Nonetheless, Raja Tariq Aziz Bhatti Advocate, the defence lawyer, while chatting with The Nation, blasted police officials including SP Joya and SSP Ashfaq, saying his client was implicated in fake case by the both top bosses.
He said that Hussain was taken into custody on September 8; kept in illegal detention for four days and implicated in a fake case on 13/9/2014.
He informed that after missing of Hussain, his brother and cousin approached Naved Sajjad, a high court lawyer, for justice. “Naved along with the relatives called SP Joya at his office on 12/9/2014 to know whereabouts of Hussain.
Joya admitted before Naved that cook was in his custody for beating his senior officer,” Raja said.
He said that an ASJ Arif Khan Niazi granted bail to Hussain against Rs 0.1 million surety bonds on 6/11/2014 and finally he came out of jail on 10/11/2014.
“You can judge the truth and innocence of the accused from the fact that an ASJ awarded bail to the accused in a narcotics case as the judge totally agreed to my arguments during hearing of the case. Normally, special anti-narcotics courts or high courts do not grant bail in such cases,” he added.
He said that he filed a petition under section 22-A with court of Sessions Judge Arif Khan Niazi for filing case against SSP Ashfaq and SHO PS Civil Line. The court has set November 25, 2014 the date for hearing the petition, he said.
He said that the police bosses including SHO and IO of the case were daringly defying court orders of making the statement of Wazir Hussain, copy of which also available with The Nation, as part of police investigation for which he also moved a contempt of court with Additional District and Session Judge Ifran Saeed which would be heard on 27/11/2014.   
City Police Officer (CPO) Humayun Bashir Tarar, while talking to The Nation, said that the whole matter had been investigated in accordance with law and the accused had also been produced before a court of law. “Police will present substantial evidence before the court against the accused and the judge will decide the fate of him,” he said, adding that a departmental inquiry had also been launched against the cook as he was police official.