Gang rape: Handicapped woman’s rape complaint registered after a week’s delay

Police said they couldn’t file a case as the victim didn’t ‘record a statement’.

VEHARI:

Police officials have finally registered a case against five men for raping a deaf and dumb woman last week.

According to the victim’s family, Chak 517IB Akhtar Town resident Ghulam Zaid’s daughter Farah was kidnapped eleven days ago. “Four landlords took her from our house and we didn’t see her again till a few days later,” Farah’s mother Shabnam Bibi said. Zaid said that a week ago he had taken his daughter to register a case against Shehzad, Dilawar, Ali and Sajjad but police officials refused to file an FIR. “Two of the men are sons of a local landlord and police officials said they couldn’t register the case because our daughter hadn’t given them an account of the story,” he added.

“My daughter is deaf and cannot speak. How is she supposed to record a confession? My wife and I told them exactly what had happened but they said they couldn’t take our word for it,” Zaid said.   “We had a medical test done to confirm that my daughter was gang raped. When she returned she was traumatised and she barely moved for a couple of days. The doctors told us that the test results confirmed rape and they even called the police but they still refused to file a case,” Zaid said.

“I called the police station and when they still refused to register the case against medical evidence I told them I would approach the media,” said DHQ Hospital Dr Sadaf Qazi. “I conducted the medical exam and the girl was severely injured. She was covered in bruises. This is a travesty because this girl is disabled and cannot even scream in pain,” she said.

On Tuesday, Police officials at the Vehari Station finally registered a case on Farah’s behalf. Farah’s parents said that initially they pushed the couple out of the police station but they later approached the police with several reporters in tow and they registered the case. “They are still not arresting the accused. They say there isn’t enough evidence even though we have medical proof and DNA samples. All they need to do is find a match with the accused but they are stalling,” Shabnam Bibi said. Station House Officer (SHO) Islam Cheema said that the issue had not been ignored but the police had been waiting on proper evidence. “We simply could not register a case without the victim’s statement. She could easily be lying or she could be completely unaware of what her parents are doing,” he said.  “The reason the men have not been arrested is because there is a rivalry between these two families and they are being targeted,” he added.

Cheema said that a case had, however, been registered and he would conduct a thorough investigation into the incident.



*Name of victim has been changed to protect her identity



Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2011.