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| December 11, 2005 | Sunday | Ziqa’ad 8, 1426 |
Quake survivor retracts charges
LAHORE, Dec 10: A Kashmiri quake survivor who was allegedly raped by a Mayo Hospital surgeon reportedly retracted her written statement on Friday. “I was forced to sign the statement,” a member of the police investigation quoted her as saying.
Police sources told Dawn that the girl appeared before the police team headed by SSP investigation Chaudhry Shafqaat Ahmad in the company of her father and Maulana Muhammad Akram of Jamia Ashrafia (a self-proclaimed relative of the girl).
“She did not speak much and just retracted the rape charges. She said that she had never been assaulted,” a senior member of the team quoted her as having said.
When the investigation team wanted to know that who forced her to sign the statement, the girl said “she would explain the rest of the story before a court.”
The police took her to a court for getting her statement recorded before a magistrate but the court timing was over by that time.
In a written statement on Dec 7, Ajeeba Jabeen, 18, had alleged that surgeon Dr Maqsood Husain, 43, had assaulted her sexually at his office late on Dec 4. After the registration of the case, Dr Husain surrendered.
The girl, however, went missing from quake victims’ ward mysteriously. Later, it was learnt that she was with Maulana Akram.
Police said the girl also refused to have her medically examined. She would now be produced before a magistrate on Monday.
The accused doctor had told Dawn in police custody that the Kashmiri girl had developed inclination towards him during the last two months treatment. But, he denied that he had raped her. “As I did not commit the crime, I courted arrest after reading newspapers.”
Dr Husain suspected Mayo MS Dr Ranjha’s role behind his ‘character assassination’.
He, however, admitted that he had called the girl to his office on Dec 4 for examining her X-Ray reports. That night, he said, he drove her to The Mall in his car to have some snacks.
The doctor further said that he had taken the girl out of the hospital several times in the past to visit different areas in the city, including Food Street at Gowalmandi and The Mall. He also said that the girl had started following him and proposed him one day.
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