LAHORE: Police claimed on Wednesday to have solved the mystery surrounding the rape and murder of a minor boy in a mosque of Green Town as they `found’ another suspect involved in the crime.

A suspect in the case had already `confessed’ to the gruesome crime 10 days ago but police now claimed the prayer leader had only sexually assaulted the boy two days before he was found murdered.

The police claimed to have resolved the mystery through DNA testing.

Read: Slain child’s family seeks ‘an eye for an eye’

“Another suspect Shoaib was nabbed in the light of DNA report received from forensic laboratory,” said Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Amin Wains at a news conference.

Headed by CIA DSP Anwar Saeed Kingra, a police team investigated the case from different angles after collecting evidence from the crime scene, he said and added that initially eight suspects were taken into custody. Later, the samples of all the suspects were sent for forensic analysis and the DNA test finally led the police to prime suspect Shoaib.

“Shoaib, a hair dresser of the Behari Colony, has also confessed to his crime during interrogation,” claimed the CCPO.

DNA test shows prayer leader raped boy and barber killed him

Shoaib was brought before the media in the news conference where he disclosed that after raping the boy, he killed him to conceal his identity.

Earlier, the initial police inquires claimed the prayer leader of the mosque had confessed to raping and killing the boy. The all-of-a-sudden arrest of a barber as a ‘prime suspect’ had triggered a controversy.

Capital City Police spokesperson Nayab Haider told Dawn that police had taken eight suspects into custody for interrogation, including the prayer leader.

He said the prayer leader confessed to only raping the boy but did not confess killing. He said DNA report had revealed the prime suspect.

The spokesman also said the prayer leader would be booked for sexually assaulting the minor boy.

Published in Dawn January 15th , 2015

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