PESHAWAR: A Peshawar High Court bench on Thursday directed the Dera Ismail Khan police to arrest the prime suspect in the teenage girl stripping case within three weeks.

Chief Justice Yahaya Afridi and Justice Mohammad Ayub Khan adjourned the hearing into the case until March 20 observing if the police failed to arrest the main suspect by then, the deputy inspector general of police (headquarters) should appear before the court to explain their failure.

The bench issued the directives after additional advocate general Qaiser Ali Shah and AIG (legal) Falak Nawaz submitted the case progress report in line with its earlier directives.

The AAG and AIG said the Dera Ismail Khan regional police officer had constituted three teams headed by superintendent of police Mohammad Ashfaq for arresting the absconding suspect.

PHC asks deputy IGP to appear before it in case of non-arrest

They said eight of the nine suspects charged by the victim had already been arrested.

The AAG and AIG pointed out that after receiving information that the absconding suspect had stayed with some people, the police had registered five FIRs against several of his alleged facilitators.

The bench asked why the police had not arrested the absconding suspect as during previous hearing, it had issued specific directives for the purpose.

AAG Qaiser Shah requested the bench to give the police more time for the early arrest of Sajawal.

About the allegations levelled by the victim and her family that the incident was recorded on cellphone by local resident Rehmatullah, the AAG and AIG said allegations had so far not been proved during investigation.

On Nov 22, a high court bench headed by the chief justice had disposed of a petition filed by the alleged victim of stripping, with the direction to the IGP to submit progress report of the investigation to PHC’s Human Rights Cell director for the perusal of the chief justice.

In the petition, the girl had made several prayers to the court seeking protection, recovery of film allegedly made by a local resident, and the arrest of prime suspect Sajawal.

In the progress report, the police claim that legal proceedings were in progress for attachment of the properties of the absconding suspect.

The girl had claimed that around two years ago, the prime suspect had blamed her brother for handing over a cellphone to a female member of their family and despite his denial on oath, the panchayat (jirga)had ordered her brother to pay a fine of Rs300,000 to them.

She added that despite the decision of the panchayat, the accused led by Sajawal had paraded her naked in the village.

The girl said initially, the local police didn’t cooperate with his family members and registered FIR only after the local people protested.

She said before registering FIR of the incident, the police had booked her brother and uncle in a concocted case to pressure the family not to pursue the present case.

In the initial FIR, the police had only mentioned that the girl was taken inside a residence and beaten and was not paraded in the streets.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018