Rape-murder: Suspect arrested from hometown

Victim allegedly killed for threatening to out attacker, police held suspect’s uncles till father turned him in

RAWALPINDI:

The police on Wednesday arrested a man suspected of raping and strangulating a 20-year-old man at a shop in Morgah on April 21.

A murder case had already been registered by the Morgah police.

The suspect, identified as BA*, hails from Maari Bhindaran, Nowshera Virkan Tehsil, Gujranwala, whereas the deceased, AS*, was from Rawalakot.



The police said BA and AS worked at a tent shop in Morgah Bazaar, adding that they also lived in the shop.

The police said that on the night of April 21, BA allegedly assaulted AS in the shop.

Later AS said he would tell the shop owner, the police said, adding that BA strangled the victim with a rope to silence him. BA later fled the scene.

The shop owner found the body at around 9:30am, and informed the police and the heirs of the deceased, the police said.

The police moved the body to a hospital for autopsy, after which doctors found that the deceased had been sexually assaulted before he was killed.

MHQ, an uncle of the deceased who also works in Rawalpindi, had already lodged a complaint with the Morgah police stating that on April 20 AS was with him when he received a call from the shop owner, who directed him to come back to the shop to clear some bills.



He added that the shop owner called him on April 21 and told him to quickly come to his shop because AS was dead.

MHQ said that when he saw the body in the shop, rope marks were clearly visible on the neck.

In his statement, the shop owner told the police that BA and AS were inside when he closed his shop on the night of the incident.

Morgah Police SHO Malik Kausar said the evidence suggests that BA murdered AS after raping him.

He said BA had gone into hiding at a relative’s house in Mandi Bahauddin.

Kausar said that the police held two of BA’s uncles, after which the father of the suspect handed BA over to the police.

The SHO noted that the police had dispatched the samples obtained from the accused and the deceased to a forensic lab for DNA confirmation.



The SHO claimed that the accused had already confessed.

*Names changed or withheld to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2016.