A Karachi resident who traded in crypto currency had no idea what he was in for when he was approached by some men who wanted help in buying crypto currency. He told them that he didn’t do such business and they went away – only to return some time later. This time they came in a mobile with official police number plates and took him away blindfolded. A CCTV camera caught their arrival in an official police van.
Under duress he was made to transfer $346,000 (Rs 95 million) worth of crypto currency into accounts operated by his kidnappers. Once that was done they reset his phone and dropped him in a remote area of the city.
The crypto trader then filed a complaint with senior police officers and the matter was investigated. It turned out that two of the several men who had come to him and then eventually abducted him were serving police constables. One is with the Counter Terrorism Department of tha Sindh Police and the other with the Special Security Unit of the Sindh police.
It is now confirmed that official police mobiles of both units were used in the commission of the criminal act – which is nothing but kidnapping for ransom. As the matter is being further investigated two senior officials of these police units were removed from their posts - included CTD DSP Raja Umar Khattab, a highly decorated police officer known to have taken a leading role in the fight against terrorism.
The whole sordid episode – and it is still being investigated – with the case now before a judicial magistrate and the police investigating it, just goes to show how those tasked with upholding the law and protecting the lives of citizens misuse their authority with impunity and commit such criminal acts.
That the matter came to light and is now being investigated, with the two police constables also under arrest and being prosecuted, and with the two senior police officers of the said units transferred, is a somewhat welcome sign because it indicates a willingness on the part of the Sindh police, in particular Inspector General Ghulam Nabi Memon, to uphold the law and go after criminals even if they are members of his police force. That said, there will always be, because of how law-enforcement agencies have acted in the past, a reluctance to fully trust an investigation by the police where it investigates its own members. But that is how the system works, and for the system to gain strength and become credible, we need the police to stand up and investigate and punish the black sheep within its ranks.
The Sindh and in particular the Karachi police suffer from a particularly bad image problem. While there have been several honest and efficient officers deployed in the province and in general in Karachi, the perception remains that for reporting a crime even as simple as a mobile theft or phone theft, people generally avoid going to the police station, or ‘thana’ as it is known locally. The ‘thana culture’ is still very much around and acts as a major deterrent among the people from placing too much in the police and in trusting them (the police) to solve crimes or to provide redressal for criminal acts committed against citizens.
After all, one sees individuals in plainclothes seated in the back of a police mobile and being taken somewhere all the time. And with this crypto trader’s sordid saga, who knows for what purpose and to what end.
Successful prosecution and conviction of all those involved in this abduction and kidnapping for ransom – including the police constable – would be a small but much-needed step in increasing confidence among the general public of the police. And that is crucial for any civil society to run effectively and satisfy the needs of citizens as far as policing and public safety are concerned.