Rape case: Relatives of accused ‘pressurising’ police

Police yet to arrest suspects despite FIR.

ISLAMABAD:

The relatives of the accused allegedly involved in raping a young woman are reportedly pressurising the police to hush up the whole affair, or at least, to fudge the DNA test report, it is learnt.

Shahida Khan* was allegedly gangraped at a farmhouse in Lakhwal near Bani Gala on Wednesday and the police had registered an FIR against Raja Ghafoor*, Qaiser* and Abid*.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the investigation officer (IO) Mazhar Iqbal said that the relatives of the accused were pressurising the police to favour them. When asked what kind of pressure they were exerting on him, he said “You know very well what they want”.

Another official at the Bani Gala Police Station, who wished not to be named, said the accused want the police to hush up the matter or destroy the result of the DNA test. “At the moment, we are not giving in to pressure.

The police were yet to arrest the accused, despite the registration of an FIR. The IO claimed that the police had raided various houses. “Every time before we raid a house, the accused manage to escape,” he said, adding that they were still clueless about their whereabouts.

He dispelled the impression that someone from among the police might be alerting the accused about the imminent police raid.



The DNA samples of the rape victim have been sent to the laboratory and the result was awaited, he added. “’The rape victim bore torture marks on her body and her clothes were torn.”

Meanwhile, the rape victim was produced before Judicial Magistrate Hussain Bahadur on Friday. In her statement she said that a woman, who allegedly runs a brothel in Bani Gala, brought her from Bakra Mandi, Rawalpindi, and “offered” her to the rapists.

According to the police, the suspects were drunk when they allegedly assaulted the girl. The police said that the girl escaped from the farmhouse, however, the suspects followed her and one of them opened fire at her, injuring a pedestrian near a wooded area of Bani Gala.

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