Heinous crime: Rape-murder case brushed under carpet

Incident took place on Sep 30, FIR lodged next day, suspects nabbed on Oct 2; no details of case shared with media

ISLAMABAD:

A 23-year-old woman died after she was allegedly raped at an illegal medical care centre in Rawalpindi, The Express Tribune has learnt.

On the other hand, officials at the Rawalpindi City Police Office (CPO) did not include the heinous crime in the daily crime diary that they share with the media for three consecutive days in what seems to be an effort to conceal it from the media and the public.

The victim died due to blood loss after she was allegedly raped by a suspect, Shahid*, with the help of his accomplice, James*, on September 30, said investigation officer Amanat Ali. A police official added that the victim and the two accused persons are all Christians.

Subsequently, Case 892/14 was lodged by the New Town police on October 1 on the complaint of the victim’s father. The suspects have been charged with premeditated murder, rape and abetment on the complaint of the girl’s father. The police arrested the suspects in a raid in Faizabad on October 2 as they were trying to flee the city, Ali said.

Officials at the CPO office, however, did not list the crime in the diary or even the arrests.

The officer revealed that the victim and the main suspect belonged to the same village in Khushab and the girl had come to the garrison city “just a week before she was ‘raped and murdered’”.

Narrating the story, Ali said that Shahid* inducted the girl in the centre as a trainee nurse on her brother-in-law’s request. The one-room nursing training centre was set up at the suspect’s home, he added.

Ali said that the suspect has confessed to raping the girl — who was residing in a hostel near the Sir Syed Chowk — and taking her to hospital when she started bleeding.

At the hospital, he listed her as his wife. Doctors were not able to save the woman, who died of blood loss at a private hospital at 1pm on Oct 1, he added.

Following the death, Shahid’s behaviour raised suspicion among hospital staff, who informed the police. He still managed to escape from the hospital after leaving a message for one of the victim’s relatives to collect the body.

Ali said that the police have collected all the evidence from the scene of the crime and also taken samples for DNA testing in order to establish the rape charge. The body was handed over to the family following a postmortem and they have taken it to their hometown for burial, he said.

Ali added that the suspects were produced before a district and sessions court on Friday so that they could be formally remanded into police custody. The court sent Shahid on physical remand to the police, while James was sent to jail on judicial remand for three days.

Dear diary

The daily crime diary released by the police includes basic details of all crimes, ranging from possession of contraband such as liquor, hashish, weapons and ammunition, to robberies and violent crime. Often, even minor crimes can merit a mention, such as how many sheesha centres were raided on a particular day and how many water-pipes were recovered.

The Rawalpindi police have even created Facebook and twitter accounts to update the public, yet the failure to report the incident or even the arrests would suggest, case data sharing is limited to their ‘successes’.

Commenting on the curious absence from the crime diary, Inspector Raja Fiazul Haq Naeem, PRO to the Rawalpindi CPO, said the complete crime diary is not sent to the media, adding that the practice was adopted to encourage reporters to dig out the crimes themselves.

Rawalpindi CPO Humayun Bashir Tarar was not available for his comments despite several phone calls and a text message.

*Names changed to protect identity

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2014.