Complainant lashes out after police let ‘rapist’ go

Sumera said police questioned her boss, the attacker, for only an hour.

FAISALABAD:

Rape victim Sumaira and her sister Nazia staged a sit-in outside theA clinical laboratory worker was seen pelting stones at the Women Police Station and beating her head at the station boundary wall after an accused in a rape case was released on Friday.

Police station demanding that the administration take strict disciplinary action against the women police staff for releasing the accused from the station. “He is a rich and powerful man and that is the only reason they could have let him go. The police refused to take my account seriously and now he has been let go without even serving his sentence,” Sumaira told reporters.

Sumera Bibi told The Express Tribune that she had been working in a clinical laboratory at Millat Chowk for the last five years and that on May 10, she was alone in the clinic when the owner, Raheem locked her in a room and raped her after he had closed the laboratory. “No one was at the office at the time and I was supposed to lock up after putting the supplies in the cabinet. I was locking up when he attacked me,” she said.

Sumera said that Raheem had told her that no one would believe her account and that her life would be in danger if she approached the police.  Sumera said that she raised an alarm and began to break things in the laboratory when several people broke into the laboratory and rescued her. “Raheem had escaped by the time they came in and got me out,” she said. She said that she was taken to the Women’s Police Station to file a report. “Several people came with me and testified on my behalf. After the police conducted an inquiry they registered a case against Raheem on May 11 and told me that I should stay in the station for a medical exam,” she said.

Sumera said that she had spent an entire day at the police station but no one had taken her to a hospital for her medical examination and that one of the police women had told her that she should not pursue the matter. “She told me that I would just be wasting my time as they would let the man go even if he was caught,” she added.

On May 12, Sumera went to the police station again and demanded the arrest of the accused after several hours of protesting. “They weren’t even going to go and apprehend him. Everyone knew where he was because he hadn’t left his house. We had to protest for hours before they even bothered to bring him to the police station,” Nazia said.

Raheem was allegedly given VIP protocol at the police station and was not held for more than an hour. “They didn’t lock him up and they didn’t question him. He was released within an hour of when he was brought in and they refused to test my sister,” she said.

Sumera said that she was promised a medical examination on May 12 but the police asked her to leave and return in two days. “They forced me away from the station and said the exam would be conducted after a couple of days. Then it wont be viable,” she said. “I left the police station on Thursday night at about 10 pm when the accused was in police custody and his statement was being recorded but when I returned the next day he had been released,” Sumera said.

Following this, Sumera began to throw stones at the police station and threatened to commit suicide. Locals saw her yelling obscenities at the police from outside the gate and said that she had been there for several hours. “A large crowd gathered to see her throwing things at the police station and swearing at them for letting her attacker go,” said resident Abdul Kareem. Kotwali DSP Mian Khalid, confirmed that the accused was called in the police station but SHO women police station allowed him to go after recording his statement. “We have conducted a medical exam of the girl and if the rape is proven we will arrest Raheem,” he said.

“How can they be waiting on medical test results when they never conducted a medical exam?” Sumera said.



*Name of the victim and the alleged attacker have been changed to protect their identity

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2011.