ISLAMABAD: A case that was purportedly lodged against junior policemen to teach them a lesson for beating up a senior police official during patrolling some months ago was dismissed by a local court for lack of evidence.

The police officials were booked last month on the complaint of Line Officer Eagle Squad Shan Mohammad under Section 155-C and 155-D of the Police Order 2002 following allegations of extortion.

The case came on the heels of an altercation between a team of police officials including the two officials booked in the FIR and a senior police officer who was stopped by the patrolling team. Police sources claimed that the case was `fabricated` to teach `low-ranking officials` a lesson for messing with the senior policeman.

The FIR against the officials said the line officer got information from different sources that the two officials were involved in harassing families for money in the jurisdiction of Shalimar police station. The time and day of occurrence of the crime were not mentioned in the FIR.

Initially, the court granted their twoday physical remand. After the expiry of the remand, the two officials were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate Riffat Mahmood Khan for judicial remand, but the magistrate discharged the case.

According to the court order, no incriminating material was brought against the accused persons to connect them with the offence. The request for judicial remand is turned down and accused persons are discharged in the instant case, the order stated, directingthe release of the officials.

Senior police officer roughed up This ostensible hostility is traced back to a chilly night in the second week of December 2022. The said officials intercepted a vehicle on suspicion, according to police sources. They added that a man a senior police officer disembarked from the car and a spat ensued. The sources claimed that the person was allegedly intoxicated at the time and instead of showing his identification papers, he picked a fight with the cops after cussing them.

As a result, the two officials roughed him up while another recorded the entire incident on his phone, the sources said.

However, the police officer managed to contact senior officials who reached the spot and rescued him, they said.

At the time, the issue was brushed under the carpet -for the sake of the morale of the Eagle Squad and to save the skin of `intoxicated` police officer.

But some senior officers refused to let it go. Subsequently, the abovementioned case was filed against the personnel involved in the row with the intention to get them fired from service.

However, in the absence of evidence, the accused were exonerated by the court.

A police official told Dawn that the DIG Operation removed the SHO of the Shalimar police station over his failure to produce evidence in the case.

Police PRO Taqi Jawad refused to comment on the altercation he neither confirmed nor denied.

He said he would arrange comments from the senior officer, but by the time this story went to press, he remained unavailable.

He, however, said the Shalimar SHO was removed over `poor performance`.