Beijing traffic patrol yesterday denied it was plotting against a family who accused authorities of illegal entrapment when confiscating their unlicensed cab.
Han Limin, mother of a one-year-old boy, protested with her baby before the headquarters of Beijing traffic patrol brigade's first division Tuesday morning. She said her mentally ill husband, Liu Peng, went missing after a police patrol drove off his unlicensed cab in north Beijing's Tiantongyuan area on Dec 18 and threatened to fine him 10,000 yuan.
"I want my husband and my car back," read a banner held up by Han, a migrant worker from nearby Hebei province. She said she wanted to sell the car and spend the money to look for her missing husband.
Patrol police arrested Liu when his passenger got off after a 20-yuan ride from Tiantongyuan subway station. Police said they were close to Liu's vehicle so they were able to see the passenger, a man surnamed Tian, hand over the money to Liu.
A check at Tian's identity showed him to be a local resident, police said.
"But my husband said he was trapped by a fake passenger collaborating with the police," Han told the Beijing News.
Liu Chaosheng, deputy head of the division, yesterday said preliminary investigations showed his men did not set a trap.
"There is no chance of entrapment. This has never been our practice," he told METRO.
The official also said his division has conducted "independent investigation" on the case and found the process was "entirely legal" according to police records.
An "entrapment scheme" has become a taboo term for traffic authorities following a migrant worker in Shanghai who crushed his finger in fury after local police hooked him into an arrest in October.
Shanghai traffic authorities denied the entrapment at first, but were forced to admit their wrongdoing in a court trial later.
"If our patrol men did a trap, we would have admitted it immediately," said the official. "Honestly, we don't want to risk our reputation."
Police still had no whereabouts of Liu Peng yesterday, and Han petitioned again to the patrol division in the afternoon, requesting the authorities to return her car, a second-hand Xiali sedan, commonly used for thousands of unlicensed cabbies in Beijing.
The authority said they still had doubts over Liu's situation. The authority said there was a possibility that Han was hiding her husband.
"We have asked the police to keep us informed on Liu's whereabouts," said Liu, the official. "If the police find him injured, missing or in trouble, we will issue a lesser punishment to the family."
