Rape inquiry: Cop ‘rapes’ woman for filing her case against in-laws

The court has ordered an investigation into the charges against ASI.

FAISALABAD:

Additional Session Judge Mian Abdul Rehman Bodla has ordered the Faisalabad city police officer (CPO) to investigate rape allegations against a police official.

According to court officials Bodla said “I have ordered a probe into the allegations of rape levelled against an ASI by a woman. If the accused is found involved then a criminal case will be registered against him.” The judge issued the order on a complaint lodged by Shazia Asad under Section 22-A and 22-B of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) for issuance of direction to the CPO to initiate departmental action against the ASI posted at Police Station D-Type Colony.

(Read: Police assault - Faisalabad woman faces double whammy)

Shazia contended that she had been kidnapped and tortured by her in-laws several months ago. “I managed to escape them and registered a case against them with the Police Station. The ASI asked me to come to the police station again to identify suspects from a line-up and when I did he took me to the Seghal City Bus Stop and raped me in the fields,” she added. Shazia said that a case had initially been filed under Sections 365, 354, 377A, 511 and 34 of Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). “The ASI said that he had filed the case and that I owed him something in return,” she told the court. She told the court that after getting a medical check up and a certificate verifying the assault, she immediately filed a complaint against the accused police official with the Women’s Police Station but no action was taken.

Shazia claimed that she also filed complaints before the CPO, the regional police officer and other police officials but no notice was taken. “Instead, because of my complaint against the ASI, the investigation officials set my kidnappers free and cancelled the FIR,” she added.

The court declared that if the respondent is found involved he will not only be punished under the provisions of the PPC but also under the Punjab Civil Servants (E&D) Rules, 1999. Shamim told reporters that she was a mother of three children and had gotten divorced from her abusive husband and filed a case with the family court in Faisalabad for an award of maintenance allowance, which was accepted after two years in 2010. “Despite court orders, my ex-husband has not paid the maintenance allowance and is in jail. That is why his family has been harassing me,” she said.

“They tortured and beat me and when I approached police, they initially asked me to ‘disrobe for them at the station to prove if I had been raped’ and then refused to file the case. The ASI filed it and then raped me as payment,” she said.

* The name of the victim has been changed to protect her identity

Published in The Express Tribune, September 13^th, 2011.