ISLAMABAD: The capital police have decided to reinvestigate the rape and attempted murder case of a four-year-old girl after her father showed reservations over the investigation.

On July 8, the child disappeared while playing outside her house in Bhara Kahu and was found unconscious some distance from her home. She was raped and strangled by the attacker but survived.

Two teams were constituted, each headed by the SP investigation and the SP city, which worked under the supervision of the DIG operations.

On the request of the father, an order has been issued by the senior superintendent of police (SP) to the superintendent of police (investigation) to transfer the investigation of the case to Crime Investigation Agency (CIA). The CIA was asked to investigate the case under the supervision of its deputy superintendent of police (DSP).

The station house officer (SHO) of Bhara Kahu was directed to hand over the case file to the CIA.

Earlier, separate teams, including from the CIA and the Bhara Kahu police, investigated the case. The police prepared the case file and submitted an incomplete challan to court last month, said officials in the police.

A senior police officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity that the case would reinvestigated on the request of the complainant, father of the girl. As the case will be reinvestigated, the incomplete challan submitted to the court and the case file prepared by the Bhara Kahu police will be considered cancelled, he explained.

“The CIA will investigate the case and prepare a case file afresh,” he said, adding a fresh challan would be submitted to the court after completion of the investigation by the CIA.

The official said the accused arrested by the police on the identification of the victim would also be interrogated after obtaining his physical remand.

The custody of the accused will be sought from the magistrate soon, he added. Besides, statements of the victim and her family members and others will also be recorded.

The father of the girl, a government official, approached senior police officers expressing reservations over the investigation and requesting for a fresh probe. In his application, the complainant said the police had arrested the accused but did not investigate the case in a proper way to give favour to the accused.

In their investigation, the police did not mention him as an accused, the father said, adding they were depending on the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA)’s reports which were yet to be received. He also showed his doubts over samples sent to the PFSA.

When contacted, the victim’s father told Dawn that the investigators had failed to get confession from the accused.

“He was arrested after my daughter identified him but the police failed to get a confessional statement from him.”

A CIA team earlier also investigated the case and grilled four suspects, including two teenage nephews of the victim’s father.

“My nephews were subjected to severe torture by the police to get them confess to the crime. They were picked when I was in hospital with my daughter but later I got them released,” he said.

On the other hand, the police treated the accused, a neighbour of the victim, entirely differently. He alleged that the father of the accused had also tried to get statements from people living in the neighborhood that his son was innocent. A majority of them refused but a few people gave statements according to his will, he added.

“I have serious reservations over the statements as my daughter has already identified the accused,” he said. Such statements were one of the reasons for my request to get the case reinvestigated, he maintained.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2019