KMC employee suffering from Covid-19 booked after he hugs officer

An employee of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) suffering from Covid-19 was booked on Saturday after he intentionally hugged and kissed a KMC human rights officer at his office for not being paid his salary.

An FIR No 119/20 under the sections 186/506/34 at the City Courts police station was registered on the request of KMC senior director HRM Jamil Farooqui against KMC employee Shahzad Anwar. In the FIR, the complainant also accused senior journalist Rashid Siddique of being an accomplice, stating that it was the journalist who had advised the Covid-19 patient to hug him for not receiving the salary.

“I am working in the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation as BS-19 officer and discharging my duties as senior director HRM. After Friday prayers, a person, namely Shahzad Anwar working in KMC as Stenographer BS-16 [and] presently awaiting for posting in HRM department KMC, came in my office with some persons and forcibly hugged and kissed me on my neck,” reads the FIR. The complainant added that the employee later announced that he had contracted Covid-19, after which panic erupted in the KMC head office.

The video of hugging was also recorded and it went viral on social media.

Police said a case has been registered and investigations are under way. They added that following the nomination of a journalist associated with a private news channel in the FIR, the Additional IG Karachi had ordered the South investigation SSP to conduct an inquiry into the incident.