Gang rape: Case registered 12 days after victim dropped off at police station

Police waited on a medical report of the victim to register the case, which took 10 days to come.

ISLAMABAD:

It was only after he left that she told police that he and his two friends had raped her. The suspect had dropped her off at the Shehzad Town Police Station, claiming that she had been “after him”.

By the time the police moved, the man had disappeared.

She recorded her statement before a magistrate under section 164 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). A subsequent medical examination, whose report took 10 days to be released, confirmed that she had been assaulted.

After the medical report, the Women Police Station in G-7 on Thursday — 12 days after she was first brought to the police —- registered a case of kidnapping and gang rape against the main suspect MG* and his two accomplices, all residents of Bhara Kahu. None of the suspects were arrested till the filing of this report.

The woman was dropped at the police station on August 25 this year. The man handed the woman over to the Shehzad Town police, claiming that she came to him for help and was not “leaving him alone”.

He told the police that he wanted to get rid of her, but “she comes back to me again and again”. He gave money to the police officials on duty and asked them to send her to “some shelter home” as he did not know her family.

The girl remained silent while he was there, the police said. However once he left, she told them that she was assaulted by him and his two friends from Bhara Kahu. She also provided the contact and residence details of her family.

She was then shifted her to the Women Police Station for a medical examination. She was later allowed to go with her family.

The woman also recorded her statement before a magistrate under PPC 164. A statement recorded under PPC 164 is recorded by the magistrate and the testifier is given time to think over his/her statement. Such a statement cannot be altered later and the testifier is liable to be prosecuted for a wrong testimony.

She told the police that the three men had picked her up forcibly after she left home to go to her uncle’s nearby house. She said that the men took her to a house in the outskirts of the city and raped her for four days before dropping her off at the police station.

The main suspect threatened her of grave consequences if she said anything about the rape, the woman said. A police investigator said there were certain discrepancies in her statement that they are investigating.

Police said they are trying to track down the suspects, who were not present at their alleged residences when a police team raided.

*Names have been withheld to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2012.