Woman withdraws rape charge

RAWALPINDI: A woman, who had claimed that she had been gang-raped by three policemen and their accomplice, has retracted her statement before a judge on Tuesday.

The 20-year-old RA* has withdrawn the accusations she made against police officers in the FIR.

She had claimed that she was out buying Sehri items with her friend when they were intercepted by four people who hauled her away at gunpoint in a car with tinted glasses and raped her.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had visited her and assured her that government will make sure that the criminals get punished.

However, when she was presented before a civil judge she changed her earlier statements. RA* told Civil Judge Sameera Alamgir that her rapists were some other people, not the named police officials.

She added said that the detained suspects were innocent and had been unjustly nominated them in the case.

RA* told the court that she had never met the suspects before nor did they abduct her. She refuted that the suspects raped her and left the court immediately with her family after recording her statement. Judge Sameera Alamgir has sent this recorded statement to the related court.

*NAME WITHHELD  TO PROTECT IDENTITY 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2019.