LAHORE: A woman has agreed to withdraw her gang-rape accusation against three men including an assistant sub inspector (ASI) after a ‘reconciliation’ with the alleged rapists, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Sania*, 25, had told the police that ASI Basharat Ali, a man named Tariq and a Secretariat employee named Amir – all three known to her as residents of her neighbourhood gang-raped her at gunpoint. An FIR to this effect was registered at Shahdara Police Station on October 28 under Section 496-A of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Sania, a mother of three, also said that the accused had made video recordings of the assault and then sent the clips to her parents and her in-laws in order to portray her as a prostitute and thus discredit her in the eyes of her family. Both her parents and her husband had refused to accept her after the incident, she said.
Rani*, who has been hosting her younger sister Sania at her house, told The Express Tribune that the accused had now convinced Sania’s husband and father-in-law to let her return home. “She has been living with me for almost a month now. Our parents did not want her back. After seeing the clips, no one wanted to listen to her side of the story,” she said.“But I cannot keep her permanently at my house,” Rani added. “She was left with no option but to reconcile with the accused. In return she can get her family life back.”
Rani said the accused had been able to convince Sania’s in-laws to let her return as they were “very influential” in the neighbourhood.
Sub Inspector Muhammad Amin, the investigation officer in the case, said that the accused had given Sania a “huge sum” of money for the reconciliation. He said the chemical examiner’s report on evidence of rape was still awaited. He said the accused are on interim bail till November 24.
Earlier, Sania had accused the police of bias in the investigation. She said Shahdara police had initially refused to register the FIR, only doing so after they received a phone call from the Chief Minister’s Complaint Cell. They had also delayed a medical examination of her for several days, and the investigation officer had declared the accused innocent even before the medical exam report was available.
Sania will now likely alter her testimony when the case gets to the courts. “Section 496-A of the PPC is a non-compoundable offence, so the legal proceedings will continue even if there is a ‘reconciliation’ between the complainant and the accused,” said Raja Zulqarnain, a former secretary of the Supreme Court Bar Association.
He said typically in such cases, the complainant would submit before the court or before the investigation officer that she had nominated the accused in her complaint by mistake. After this, the court would likely grant them bail.
Zulqarnain warned that the complainant could face punishment for making false accusations. “After being cleared of rape, the accused could initiate Qazaf proceedings against her for involving them in a fake case. The punishment under Qazaf charges is equal to fornication,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 21st, 2010.
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