Lahore rape case: Police prepare sketch of key suspect with the help of CCTV footage

The man has also been identified by the victim’s three-year-old cousin.

LAHORE:

Investigations into the rape of a five-year-old girl took an important turn on Sunday after police prepared the sketch of a suspect with the help of CCTV footage.

A police official, privy to the investigation, said a man, identified as Shehzad Kabaariya had been detained on the basis of the sketch. Investigators have begun questioning the suspect.

“The man in the sketch has also been identified by the three-year-old cousin of the victim, Ahmad Yar, who had been kidnapped by the pedophiles along with the girl, while they were playing in the street,” he added

After the crime, the abductors dropped Ahmad Yar at the Child Protection Bureau while the girl was left near the wall of a hospital.

Police detained more than 70 people, most of whom were allowed to leave after initial interrogation. However four of the suspects were still under custody as the law enforcers believed they were involved in the crime.

“We hope the interrogation of the suspects will soon provide us with a lead,” said the official, who is heading the investigation.

The police said the two guards, who had shifted the child to emergency ward and were on duty at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital at the time had been asked to join the investigation.

However, the police refused to claim that the men taken into custody were the same people, who are seen in the CCTV footage. The video shows two men, one in shalwar kameez and the other in trousers and casual t-shirt, holding the child and passing from outside the hospital.

The police said Shehzad – the main suspect in the case – resembles the man appears wearing pants and casual t-shirt in the footage.

The image of the other man, who is seen holding the child, is grainy and unclear, the police said.

A CIA police official, on condition of anonymity, said there was no footage to tell which of the two men dropped the child.

According to an official, the police have requested the British Council to provide the footage of its CCTV cameras, which command a broader view of the road and can help resolve the case. However, the British Council has declined the police’s request and has asked them to formally file in a requisition, on approval of which camera footage would be given to police. “The British Council has been requested formally now,” he added.

Meanwhile, the medics at the Services Hospital said the statement of the child could not be recorded at present as she had not recovered from trauma.

“The case cannot be resolved until the child recuperates from mental trauma and fear and identifies the culprits herself,” said Superintendent Police Investigation Imtiaz Sarwar.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has vowed that the “savages who molested a 5-year-old girl have committed an unpardonable crime” against the nation and humanity. He said the early arrest of the culprits involved in this brutal act would be ensured for bringing them to justice and preventing such tragic incidents in future.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 16^th, 2013.