Public protectors: LHC orders rape case against two cops

Court accepts plea that case registration can’t be subject to DNA test results.

LAHORE:

Justice Anwarul Haq of the Lahore High Court on Wednesday ordered the registration of a case against two police officials for allegedly raping a woman and detaining her at a police post for two days.

The petitioner, through Advocate Arif Gondal, submitted that on June 6, she was bundled into a car by three men and driven off. When the car neared Bhirowal police post, in Mandi Bahauddin police jurisdiction, it was stopped. Two of the kidnappers, she said, fled while the third, a man named Qamar Abbas, was arrested and taken to the police post.

She said that the policemen also took her to the post, saying that they needed to fulfil certain legal requirements. She alleged that Assistant Sub Inspector Ijaz, who is in charge of the police post, and Constable Asif later raped her. They kept her at the police post for two days and raped her repeatedly, she said. On the third day, she said, her brother arrived at the post and bribed the police Rs25,000 to release her.

The petitioner said that the ASI later registered an FIR for rape against Qamar Abbas. She filed a petition before the Mandi Bahauddin sessions judge, seeking an FIR against the policemen for rape rather than Abbas. The judge directed the police to get a DNA test done and to register a case against the policemen if the results confirmed her story, or initiate legal proceedings against the petitioner if they did not, she said.

Gondal argued before Justice Haq that the court could not make the registration of an FIR conditional on the outcome of the test. He said the police should be ordered to register an FIR against the nominated cops without waiting for the results of the DNA test.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 27^th, 2013.