KMC worker with Covid-19 booked for ‘forcibly hugging officer’

The police registered on Saturday a case against an employee of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), who earlier tested positive for Covid-19, on charges of forcibly hugging and kissing KMC human resource management (HRM) director Jameel Farooqui over non-payment of his salary on Friday.

The FIR was registered under Sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public function), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code against Shahzad Anwar on Farooqui's behalf at the City Court police station. Journalist Rashid Siddique has also been nominated in the FIR for allegedly encouraging Anwar to hug and kiss Farooqui.

Farooqui, in his statement to the police, said he was a BS-19 officer, adding that when he returned to his officer after Friday prayers, a person identifying himself as Shahzad Anwar, a BS-16 stenographer at the KMC, barged in and forcibly hugged and kissed him on the neck. He then declared that he had Covid-19, Farooqui told the police.

"Anwar is presently waiting to be posted in the HRM department," he said. "Following this, a panic was created at the KMC's head office."

According to Farooqui, Anwar also disrupted work at the KMC and interfered in official work with the Siddique's help.

The Karachi AIG has ordered the South investigation SSP to conduct an inquiry into the incident.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 6^th, 2020.