Suspect set free after ‘settlement note’ obtained

Complainant says police forced her to sign the paper, SHO denies the allegation.

HAFIZABAD: Sukhekhe police have set free the suspect in a grievous assault after allegedly forcibly obtaining the complainant’s thumb print of a blank paper.

Shahnaz Bibi told The Express Tribune that she was urged by the police not to prosecute the suspect, who she said had attacked her husband Shaukat Ali and cut his nose with a shaving razor, because he was well connected.

“They said prosecuting him (the suspect) will be pointless as he will be bailed out and harass us,” she said. She said the Sukhekhe station house officer had then obtained her thumb impression on a blank paper.

The complainant said the suspect had broken into her house in Nawazish Town and tried to sexually assault her daughter. She said her husband, Shaukat Ali, put up resistance and was injured by the suspect who attacked him with a razor.

She said the suspect was caught by some neighbours who were drawn to the scene by her calls for help. They later handed him over to the police.

Meanwhile, Shaukat Ali was taken to the rural health centre where the doctors gave him first aid and referred him to the Pindi Bhattian tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospital. However, Shahnaz Bibi said, the family had been unable to take him to the THQ hospital because they could not pay for the transport.

Sukhekhe SHO Arif Hussain Gondal denied that Shahnaz Bibi was forced to sign a settlement. He said the suspect was released after she visited the police station and submitted the document on Tuesday night.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2012.