Law and order: Rape victim attacked in front of court

One of the men accused of rape allegedly beat up girl, her brother.

MULTAN: Daharanwala police on Sunday assigned an official to keep watch at the home of a sexual assault victim after she and her brother were beaten up allegedly by one of the two men accused of raping her.

Muhammad Usman, brother of the victim, told The Express Tribune that he and his sister were stopped on their way home and beaten up by one of the suspects and his accomplices.

He said they wanted his sister to sign a paper saying that she had wrongly implicated the suspects in the matter. He said they tried to kidnap his sister on her refusal to sign the paper but were prevented by the large number of people who were drawn to the scene.

“They fled on seeing a police team arrive at the scene,” Usman said.

SHO Muhammad Zaman Joiya said the police had followed the suspect and his accomplices to a hospital where he went after the incident but could not arrest them.

The girl and her brother were taken to Chishtian tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital from where they were discharged after first aid.

The suspect had fled from a sessions court after Judge Haider Amin cancelled a bail granted to him and the other men nominated in the FIR on July 9.

The bail was cancelled after a medical examination of the 15-year-old victim at Chishtian THQ hospital confirmed that she had been raped.

The two men had earlier been released on bail on July 4, two days after they were taken into custody on July 2.

According to the FIR registered by the victim’s brother they had assaulted the girl in Chak 40/ F, a village in Chishtian, on May 29.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 16^th, 2012.