LAHORE: The police authorities on Tuesday suspended the Sattukatla station house officer and his three subordinates from service for raiding a guest house without any complaint, harassing two room occupants and thrashing the manager on Monday afternoon.

An inquiry held by Headquarters SP held SHO Rai Nasir Abbas and his three constables guilty of illegally raiding the guest house and recommended stern action them.

The Lahore High Court, in a ruling in connection with a hotel raid petition, had banned the police in February 2012 to enter any guest house or hotel by violating privacy. Justice Manzoor Ahmad Malik, who heard a petition seeking quashment of a case registered against All Pakistan Muslim League leader Ghulam Mohiyuddin and 36 men and women arrested from his guest house, remarked that the police had no right to interfere in the personal lives of citizens.

The inquiry details available with Dawn showed that SHO Nasir, who got his first posting as SHO in the Lahore police a few months ago, was on routine patrolling on his official vehicle when he reached Johar View Guest House near Shaukat Khanum Hospital around 4pm on Monday. The SHO entered the building and directed his constables to check first storey where rooms were situated.

The constables found a room locked from inside, knocked it for few minutes and later found a boy and a girl.They alerted the SHO who also went upstairs to quiz the boy and girl who introduced themselves as university students and said they hired the room for two hours against payment of Rs2,500 and they had recently passed their bachelors exams and wanted to be engaged by their families.

As the SHO was quizzing the boy and the girl, guest house manager Latif also reached there and tried to convince the SHO about the situation. The SHO slapped Latif and started beating him with kicks and fists and then came downstairs with the room occupants and the manager.

The thrashing was captured by CCTV cameras installed at the first storey. The SHO then brought the youngsters and the manager to the police station and later released them after receiving an ‘undertaking’.

The police authorities sprang into action after the CCTV footages were telecast by news channels on Tuesday. The inquiry officer declared that the SHO conducted raid without any justification and later released the three without any legal action.

DIG Dr Haider Ashraf suspended SHO Nasir Abbas and constables Tanveer, Azhar Abbas and Muhammad Wakeel from service.

According to a senior police official it is a common practice that SHOs and their subordinates at most police stations find it easy to collect ‘monthlies’ from guest houses and hotels by intimidating their owners and managers. He says in case of refusal by owners and managers, raids are conducted on the pretext of presence of proclaimed offenders, criminals and prohibited items.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2014