Crime against women: Man held for sexual assault, kidnapping

Woman’s husband says police reluctant to proceed, his complaint registered three days after his wife.

RAHIM YAR KHAN:

Zahir Peer police have arrested a man on charges of kidnapping a woman and sexually assaulting her for eight days.

The FIR registered in the matter accuses the suspect of detaining the woman and her child. It said the woman was sexually assaulted by eight men, only one of whom has been identified, during the detention.

Talking to The Express Tribune, complainant Mohammad Yaseen, a resident of Zahir Peer, accused the police of delaying action in the matter. He said the FIR was registered on Wednesday (July 25), three days after his wife and son were abandoned in a field near Sardargarh by their kidnappers.

Yaseen said he had submitted the application for registration of a kidnapping case after his wife and son disappeared on July 14 but no action was taken until the Rahim Yar Khan district police officer, Sohail Zafar Chattha, took notice of media reports of the incident. Yaseen also accused the police of reluctance in taking action in the matter. He said the police had mentioned only one suspect in the FIR instead of eight as stated in the complaint. “There is no mention of my son’s kidnapping in the FIR,” he said.

Station House Officer Mohammad Ashraf rejected the allegations as baseless. He said they had sent samples obtained in the medical examination for chemical examination and would proceed in the matter in accordance with the law. The SHO said the FIR mentioned one of the eight men because he was the only one identified in the complaint. He said more names would be added to the FIR as soon as some evidence about them was available. He said Sub Inspector Ghullam Haider was gathering evidence for the purpose. “He has been told to regularly submit reports about the investigation to the DPO,” he said.

The SHO said the DPO would decide whether or not there was a need to mention the child’s kidnapping in the FIR, registered under Sections 376 (sexual assault) and 496-A (enticing or taking away or detaining a woman with criminal intent) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

In a statement to the media after she was released on July 22, the woman had said that she and her son were detained at a house in Gulshan-i-Iqbal Colony.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 27^th, 2012.