Chief justice seeks reports on gang-rape cases

District and sessions judges directed to look into six cases reported in Feb.

LAHORE:

The Chief Justice’s Complaint Cell at the Lahore High Court on Tuesday took notice of press reports of six gang-rapes in the Punjab this month and ordered district judges to look into them.

Four of the reported incidents occurred in Lahore, one in Kasur and one in Multan.

In one incident reported on February 12, a professor of Government College University Lahore was accused of participating in the gang-rape of a colleague’s sister. The chief justice directed the Lahore district and sessions judge to investigate and submit a detailed report regarding the steps taken by the police.

In another incident reported on February 7, officials of the Federal Investigation Agency allegedly lured a BA student to a hotel in Liberty with the offer of an appointment letter and then drugged and raped her. The judge was also directed to submit reports about the gang-rape of a woman in Nawankot by three men, reported on February 14; and the gang-rape and murder of an unidentified pregnant woman in Ghaziabad, reported on February 6.

The chief justice directed the Multan district and sessions judge to submit a report on the alleged gang-rape of a young woman by Kotwali police officials, reported on February 11. The police allegedly stopped a car carrying a woman and her daughter, threatened to press charges against them for an unspecified crime, and then raped the daughter in front of her mother.

The Lahore High Court district and sessions judge is to submit a report within a week on the alleged gang-rape of a newlywed woman by seven men in front of her husband at gunpoint, reported on February 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2013.