August 20, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 10, 1423

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MULTAN, Aug 19: Some officials of the Dera Ghazi Khan DIG’s office have misplaced the evidentiary record in the Meerwala gang-rape case from the police file.

This was told to the anti-terrorism court by SP crimes Mirza Muhammad Abbas on Monday while deposing as defence witness. He said Dera DIG Asif Nawaz had ordered a probe into the matter and fixed responsibility on the negligent staff.

The SP crimes was summoned by the court on Saturday last on the request of defence counsel Malik Saleem to bring with him the police file of the case.

He said he was appointed by the Dera DIG to hold a probe on July 3, 2002, after the publication of news items regarding corruption, negligence and malpractice of the Jatoi police in the investigation of the gang-rape case. He said he visited the Muzaffargrh DSP’s office on July 4 and recorded statements of Abdul Shakoor (the sodomy victim), Salma Mai, her mother Taj Mai, inspector Nazir Ahmad and ASI Iqbal on July 5. Statements of Ghulam Husain, Sabir Husain, Manzoor Husain and Ghulam Mustafa were recorded in his presence at the office of the Jatoi SDPO. But the statements of Mukhtaran Mai, her father Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Abdul Razzaq were recorded in his absence by inspector Riaz Husain through his reader. He said all the statements were verified by him.

The defence witness said when Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Razzaq were called to verify their respective statements, they stated that the statements recorded by the inquiry officer were correct while those recorded by inspector Riaz had variations.

Here defence counsel Malik Saleem, Yaqoob Khan and Yasser Khosa requested the witness to produce the original statements of Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Razzaq which were verified by him. The SP expressed his inability to do so saying some officials had misplaced the police record.

At this, the defence counsel alleged that the statements were verified by the witnesses (Mukhtaran Mai and others) and the police were deliberately hiding them. Hearing this, the court directed the SP to bring the police file, including the statements of Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Razzaq within an hour whether it (record) was in his possession or any other official, including the DIG.

The SP crime informed the court after the stipulated time that he had brought the matter to the knowledge of the Dera DIG who had appointed SP (investigations) Nabi Bakhsh Luk to probe the matter.

While adjourning the proceedings of the case for Tuesday, judge Malik Zulfiqar Ali summoned SP crime Mirza Abbas, SP (I) Nabi Bakhsh and the personal assistant to the DIG for the next date of hearing.

Earlier, the prosecution resumed the cross-examination of DW5 Ghulam Husain, the maternal uncle of accused Abdul Khaliq and a witness of the ‘nikah’ of the latter with Mukhtaran Mai.

To a prosecution query, the DW5 denied that the other witness, Fayyaz Husain, of the ‘nikah’ was being deliberately made away with in order to spoil the prosecution arguments.

At this point, the public prosecutor postponed further cross-examination of the DW5 until the production of Fayyaz Husain before the court. On the other hand, the defence gave up Fayyaz as its witness for his being unavailable.

However, the judge posed some court questions to the DW5. Replying to the court queries, he said Abdul Khaliq pressed for instant nikah with Mukhtaran Mai because he had no confidence in the Gujjars (the victim’s family).

He said Khaliq insisted for the registration of nikah, but Maulvi Razzaq refused to do so. He said he did not know whether Maulvi Razzaq was the nikah registrar of the area.