JHANG, Aug 15: Bhowana ‘gang-rape victim’ who hit headlines on Tuesday last appeared before the Chiniot civil judge on Wednesday and disowned what was reported in the press on behalf of her husband (the complainant).

“The entire story is concocted. Neither I want to go to Darul Amman nor willing to have a DNA test,” Ayesha told the judge.

She said she was chained four hours before a high court bailiff’s raid by her sister-in-law Zubaida under a ‘plan’.

The lady, reported to be pregnant, was recovered by a bailiff on the orders of the Lahore High Court on Aug 9 from a house in Naushera village, in the jurisdiction of Bhowana police station, where she was found in chains.

Subsequently a case was registered against nine persons, including sub-inspector Lal Din of Sihala (Islamabad) police station. Ayesha joined the investigation on Aug 12 and stated that her husband, Muhammad Sharif, was a building contractor and worked with Muhammad Shafiq Butt of Rawalpindi, who suffered a huge loss in his construction business, for which he held her husband responsible.

In connivance with SI Lal Din, she said But abducted her from Pir Mahal,TT Singh district, and kept her in the Sihala PS, from where she was recovered by a bailiff of the LHC Pindi bench last year. When she was going to appear in the court on 11.6. 01, she was again abducted by SI Lal Din who took her to Noushera village. “I was kept tied by an iron chain and subjected to gang-rape by Abdul Sattar, Suleman, Yousaf and others for over one year, as a result of which I became pregnant and was having a seven months baby in my womb,” Ayesha had said in her statement recorded on Aug 12.

The accused said they were innocent and were being falsely implicated in the case. Their version was that a brother and a nephew of Muhammad Sharif, the husband of Ayesha, had shot dead Rani, the daughter of one of the accused in 1998 and were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jhang District police officer Tariq Masood Yasin told a news conference, also addressed by Punjab Law Minister Rana Ijaz Ahmad, on Thursday, that police also recorded the statement of Sughra Bibi, who lived in the house from where Ayesha was recovered. Sughra stated that she lived in that house along with her parents and two brothers. She never saw any woman being brought to the house, or being subjected to gang-rape or kept in chains.

She said she left her house on the morning of Aug 9 along with her brother Shakoor to condole the death of a relative in a nearby village. The same evening she heard the story of some chained woman being recovered from their house. “This also lends credence to the notion that the lady was brought to the house just prior to the raid by the bailiff, only to be recovered by him,” the DPO said.

The police officer was of the view that complainant Muhammad Sharif had criminal record and was a proclaimed offender. He was the leader of a gang of thugs and frauds with cases of fraud and forgery registered against him in police stations Sihala and Golra Sharif in Islamabad district, besides, Pirmahal and Kotwali (Jhang district ) police stations, he added.