Police get three months to solve child assault case

LAHORE:

A Supreme Court bench on Wednesday gave the city police three more months to solve a 22-month-old child rape case after CIA SP Umar Virk sought more time to track down the suspects. The three-member bench headed by Justice Mian Saqib Nisar also asked the police to submit a detailed report on progress in investigation.

SP Virk and SSP Rana Ayaz Saleem informed the court that a suspect had been arrested but he was not found involved in the incident. However, they said an examination of DNA samples had shown his involvement in four other cases of sexual assault. SSP Saleem assured the court that the police were doing their level best to solve the case. He said the city police had interrogated 317 people in the case.

SP Virk said it had been observed that officials at different police stations had been arresting people without evidence and claiming that they were suspected of involvement in the case. “The media picks up and highlights such claims without corroboration,” he said.

Earlier, Justice Nisar expressed his displeasure at the police’s failure to track down the suspects. He said that delay in investigation of crimes had become a routine. He said often times the police would just arrest innocent people to show the court that they were doing their work.

During the hearing, the judge narrated a personal experience with SP Virk.  He said instead of tracking down people responsible for a robbery at his house the SP had offered to compensate him for the loss.

Justice Nisar also offered to conclude hearings in the case if the police agreed to admit their failure in tracking down the culprits. “Lets us call a spade a spade,” he said.

The five-year-old girl child had been raped on September 13, 2013. She had gone missing from in front of her house in Mughalpura. Later in the day, she was found lying unconscious in front of a government hospital.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 23^rd, 2015.