KHANEWAL - The police committed highhandedness by trespassing on the house of a widow and arrested her 16-year-old granddaughter on some trumped up charges.
The unfortunate incident occurred when a police officer Shaukat Sanpal of Khanewal City Police broke into the house without warrant and arrested 16-year-old Zuhra, took her to police station and registered FIR 632/19 on charge of immoral activities. The police officer was of the view that mother of Zuhra is a bad character woman and is involved in immoral activities.
Grandmother of Zuhra pleaded the police that Zuhra has nothing to do with her mother and she is living with her. “My husband was a headmaster and you should respect the house of a deceased teacher,” the elderly woman told the police but in vain as they showed little regard for request.
The next day, the police produced the girl in the court of city magistrate, where counsel for the girl Advocate Mazhar Rukhsar Sial informed the court of facts of the incident. Upon which the court quashed the FIR and ordered the police to release the girl in the courtroom. Later, the affected family along with the girl, her counsel and civil society members called on the Khanewal DPO at his office and complained about the highhandedness by the personnel of the City Police. Upon which, the DPO marked an inquiry to the SDPO Saddr Khanewal. The civil society members were of the view that it is certain that the raiding police officer neither had a valid search warrant, nor he had lady police with him. “The police officer took an illegal action so the DPO himself should have taken a stern action against him who, otherwise, has attempted to spoil efforts of the Punjab Police to improve its public image,” the civil society activists stressed.