MULTAN, Aug 20: The Dera Ghazi Khan anti-terrorism court has accepted the plea of defence in the Meerwala gang-rape case for re-examination of three prosecution witnesses, including Mukhtaran Mai.

ATC judge Malik Zulfiqar Ali summoned Mukhtaran Mai, her maternal uncle, Sabir Husain, and Maulvi Abdul Razzaq for Wednesday to face further cross-examination of the defence.

The defence had earlier grilled all the three PWs for several days. Answering ‘crooked’ questioning by the defence, the gang-rape victim had burst into tears during the cross-examination of her statement which she deposed before the court on Aug 3 last.

The court also summoned inspector Riaz, who had recorded statements of complainants for Dera SP crimes Mirza Abbas, and head-constable Mukhtar Husain, the reader of the SP, for the next date of hearing.

Earlier, when the ATC resumed trial of the case, SP (investigations) Nabi Bakhsh Luk informed the court that the misplaced evidentiary record of the case had been recovered. At this, the defence sought examination of the police inquiry file in order to ascertain whether the statements of the complainants attached with were genuine. The prosecution objected to the defence move, saying this would open an infinite series of witnesses in the case which would ultimately cause a delay to the justice. Moreover, the police inquiry file was mainly related to the departmental inquiry against ASI Iqbal.

But the defence pleaded that inspection of the police record was vital owing to the importance of the case as this would reveal the circumstances of the incident. The court granted permission to the defence to examine the file. The defence counsel examined the file for half-an-hour.

Later, the defence urged the court to exhibit the statements of the complainants with the court record. The judge directed to make statements of Mukhtaran Mai, her father Ghulam Farid, uncle Sabir Husain and Maulvi Razzaq recorded by the police part of the court file.

After this, SP Mirza Abbas was brought into the witness box as a defence witness. He said the complainants had not owned their statements recorded to inspector Riaz. He said he had also given a note that the complainants had objected to their statements on July 5. He said he had recorded statements of all the witnesses from the complainants’ side except Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Razzaq.

Here the defence filed an application with the court to declare SP Abbas dissident so that the defence could also cross-examine him. Prosecution objected and the court directed it to give arguments. After a discussion, the court allowed defence to cross-examine the SP. Replying to the defence queries, Mirza Abbas admitted that he was given the task to find facts of the Meerwala incident. He said he was entrusted with a task to point out police inefficiency, corruption and irresponsibility in the delay of the registration of a case and subsequent action.

He admitted the importance of the statements of Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid, Sabir and Maulvi Razzaq in the police inquiry. He denied that he recorded statements of all the complainants at his own, and now he was taking a stance that he had not recorded statements of Mukhtaran Mai, Farid and Razzaq on the recommendation of the public prosecutor.

He said representatives of national and international media had thronged Jatoi on July 5 when he was there to record statements. The mediamen surrounded him to get answers of their queries regarding the incident. In the meantime, inspector Riaz recorded the statements of Mukhtaran Mai and two others, he said.

He said when he read out the statements of complainants, Mukhtaran, Farid and Razzaq uttered that inspector Riaz had not recorded their statements correctly.

The court adjourned proceedings of the case for Wednesday.