Suspended SHO heading two police stations in Karachi, court hears

Court directs CCPO to personally supervise inquiry into the matter, present report on May 6.

KARACHI: When a police officer is suspended (pending inquiry), they are usually stopped from attending to their regular beats. But the Sindh High Court (SHC) heard on Wednesday that a station house officer (SHO), who was suspended just last week after being accused in three court petitions, was now running two police stations.

“We wonder that a police inspector, who is suspended, but so many complaints are being made against him,” remarked Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who heads the two member-bench which is hearing petitions against suspended SHO Shafiq Tanoli.

On Wednesday, the lawyer of one of the petitioners claimed that after being suspended, Tanoli was running not one, but two police stations in the city, a feat not matched by even his un-suspended colleagues.

“It is asserted by the counsel for the petitioner that in fact the respondent [Tanoli], though not officially, but unofficially is conducting himself as SHO of police stations Mochko and Mauripur, Karachi,” the judge asked, wondering how a suspended SHO was managing this.

As many as three petitions are outstanding against Tanoli with charges ranging from land grabbing, unlawful detention and bribery to torture. He had been suspended last week as SHO of Mawach Goth for allegedly conducting an illegal raid on a house in sea view.

In one petition, Tanoli was alleged to have unlawfully detained six citizens, before releasing them without any charges after taking Rs550,000 as bribe from their families.

In another petition, it has been claimed that Tanoli illegally grabbed two houses built on plots 60 and 61 in Musharaf Colony.

A third petition accuses Tanoli of unlawfully detaining a man and his son, and then subjecting them to torture.

The two-judge bench ordered CCPO Karachi to initiate an inquiry into the matter under his personal supervision through an honest officer. The bench further ordered the inquiry officer to question the officially notified SHOs for the two police stations and their SSPs.

Directing the CCPO to present a report of his inquiry by May 6, the judges also ordered the Additional IG Legal Ali Sher Jakhrani to ensure that possessions of the two houses is not transferred to anyone during this period.