Shopkeeper alleges raid over asking cops to pay

The police have launched an inquiry over a complaint by a shop owner that some officials had registered cases against a relative and an employee of his over his refusal to give them a pack of cigarettes free of charge. Khalid Mehmood Ghaffari, the owner of a paan and cigarettes shop in Harbanspura, had submitted an application against eight police personnel including Sub-Inspector Asim in the complaint cell of the CCPO Office. He stated that the SI had gone to his shop on August 26 along with four policemen and asked for a pack of cigarettes worth Rs500. When Khalid demanded the price, the official became furious and threatened not to let him do business. The policemen detained the shop owner's nephew Wahab and employee Muhammad Ramzan. They freed Khalid's nephew, but registered a case against the employee over the security camera at the outlet being in functional. The next afternoon, the SI, an official named Zaigham and eight other personnel came to the shop and accused him the complainant of selling foreign cigarettes. Khalid claimed that he showed the police his licence, but 313 imported and 140 local cigarette boxes worth hundreds of thousands of rupees were seized by the police. The shopkeeper said two cases were filed against his nephew Abdul Wahab for selling shisha ingredients under the Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-smokers Ordinance 2002 and possession of illegal weapons. According to Khalid, the personnel took away all the cigarettes and weapons from his shop during the raid, although he had shown them a licence for the arms and a permit to sell imported cigarettes. The shop owner confirmed while speaking to The Express Tribune that he had submitted a complaint against harassment by the police officials. According to sources, the application has been marked to the SSP discipline who has started an inquiry Last month, the Punjab Police IG had suspended an SHO and eight other officials over a complaint of taking employees of a restaurant to a police station over not giving them free food in the Defence area.   Published in The Express Tribune, September 2nd, 2023.

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