RAWALPINDI: The 14-year-old rape victim and her newborn, who had been housed at the Child Protection Bureau (CPB), were shifted to the well-equipped CPB in Lahore on Tuesday for better healthcare as she was still in trauma.

According to sources, the rape victim’s father also accompanied her along with a team of CPB.

On the other hand, the statement of the victim could not be recorded as the police were asked to bring the suspects to the court and her statement would be recorded in their presence.

The suspected rapists have been sent to jail for 15 days and are expected to be produced before the court in the first week of March.

The victim, a resident of Ratta Amral, had lodged an FIR with the police a few days before delivering the baby. Police said following the victim’s complaint, the four suspects, including a 56-year-old man, were arrested.

According to the police, the father of the victim, a government employee, used to leave his daughter with his two younger sons while going to his office as their mother had died.

After the girl started feeling unwell, she was given medicines but she or her father did not realise the actual situation for several months.

“When it transpired that the girl was pregnant it was too late and she had no other option but to deliver the baby,” a senior CPB official quoted her father as saying.

The mother and her baby were shifted to CPB Lahore as there was a nursery and separate women hostel where the official believed they would be cared well.

Police have already sent samples of the victim and the suspects for a DNA test and the report is expected within a week.

Published in Dawn, February 26th, 2020