The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Police raids: residents allege violation of privacy

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Sunday, Apr 12, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Police raids: residents allege violation of privacy

Special Correspondent

Police ’barge’ into a flat when a minor was alone there and prevent him from alerting his parents

HYDERABAD: Can the police and IT officials simply raid flats in an apartment complex on the pretext that they found “unaccounted money” in their neighbourhood?

This is what happened in one such building at Venkatramana Colony on Saturday. The police barged into one such flat and ransacked ward robes, almirah, suitcases and searched the house.

The search, which lasted for around 45 minutes in the afternoon, took place when a minor was alone at home.

Following a knock on the door, the 17-year-old boy opened it and saw five men, including one of them in khaki uniform.

They simply told the boy that they had come to “search” the house as they found “unaccounted money” in one of the flats in the building. Asked who they were, they told him “we will tell you later”.

Even as the child tried to call his parents, they prevented him saying that it would “panic them”.

Following the search, which yielded nothing, they left saying “sorry”.

They also carried out a similar exercise in futility in a neighbour’s flat.

I-T sleuths

Although the raid was apparently part of the drive to seize dirty money on the eve of elections, the residents complained that the police and Income Tax sleuths were violating their privacy and conducting searches without warrants.

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