Entrapment: Petition for registration of abuse case rejected

Petitioner said he had been raped in a hotel in Sharjah

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge directed a petitioner on Wednesday to seek an alternative remedy after he sought action against a group of people who had abused him in Dubai.

Petitioner Zohaib Ashraf said that he had befriended Qaisar, who lived in Dubai, on Facebook. “He offered me a job in Dubai and asked me to visit the Gulf state. On November 21, I reached Dubai Airport. Qaisar took my passport and we went to Sharjah. He took him me to a hotel, where he raped me. When I resisted, he beat me up. He also called a number of other men, who also raped me,” he said.

On November 21, I managed to return to Pakistan. “I remained hospitalised at Mian Munshi Hospital,” he said. He said he had later visited the Sabzazar SHO to seek the registration of a case against his oppressors, but the SHO had refused to oblige.

The judge said that the petitioner belonged to Mandi Bahauddin according to his identity card. “However, he approached the Sabzazar police for registration of the case. During his stay in Dubai, he did not report the matter to the hotel management or security personnel. He also did not report the matter immediately to police on landing in Pakistan. I am not inclined to make any direction to the SHO for registration of a criminal case. However, the petitioner may seek alternative remedy provided under the law if so advised,” the judge said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24^th, 2015.