KARACHI, Sept 2: The prolonged duration between the occurrence of a rape and its examination makes it extremely difficult for doctors to ascertain the facts with certainty.
This was the main thrust of a study conducted by a group of students of the Sindh Medical College.
The study points out that with the lapse of time, certain positive inferences become diminished, injuries heal up and it becomes difficult for a medico-legal officer or a standing medical board to determine whether an alleged case was a rape or not.
The retrospective study was conducted by Rahat Mumtaz, Huma Afzal, Anam Rizvi and Anjum Nisar, students of fourth year in the SMC, under the supervision of Dr Ghulam Ali Memon, head of the department of forensic medicine.
The students recorded 160 cases from the Civil Hospital and Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre from Jan 1, 1999, to Dec 31, 2001.
Research supervisor Dr Ghulam Ali told Dawn that the objective of the study was to determine the effect of time-lapse on the medical examination of a rape victim.
According to the study, out of the 160 cases, 40 victims reported for examination at hospitals within 24 hours.
Fifty rape victims reported for examination within one week, 25 within a month, and 36 cases were examined within one year.
Accordingly, maximum findings, including vaginal injuries, injuries on the thighs and breasts, were determined in the first 40 cases.
Furthermore, chemical examination reports were also favourable for the victims, the study shows.
On the other hand, as time lapsed between the incidence of rape and its examination, signs of the incident — except for pregnancy — vanished.
In 19 per cent of cases, a pregnancy test was not done. At least 21 per cent of pregnancy tests were positive and 60 per cent negative.
Classifying the victims into different age-groups, the study shows that 35 per cent of the victims belonged to the age-group of 10-15 years, 59 per cent were between 16 to 25 years and 7 per cent were above 26 years of age.
Similarly, 45 per cent of the victims were married while 55 per cent were unmarried; 90 per cent were cases of abduction and 10 per cent were cases of kidnappings for ransom, the research study further said.
The study’s supervisor said that in case of abduction, the father or husband of the victim must lodge an FIR with the police at the earliest.
“In most cases, these crimes go unreported because the victims do not go to the police fearing a social stigma.”
According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s annual report of 2001, in Punjab, one woman was raped every sixth hour and a woman gang-raped every fourth day.
The HRCP report says that in other areas of the country, one woman was raped every two hours, indicating a rise in the number of cases over the decade. It adds that in a lot of cases, the rape was committed by a person known to the victim and her family.
The HRCP special task force at Hyderabad documented a total of 104 cases of rape and 106 cases of gang-rape in Sindh during the first 10 months of 2001.
In another 86 cases, minors were made victims of rape, the report adds.
