LAHORE: The capital city police have registered as many as 113 cases of rape from Jan 1 to Aug 31 this year, out of which 62 have been ‘resolved’ and 86 accused arrested.

The police, however, failed to submit complete challans in 27 cases they claimed to have solved but awaited forensic evidence results or lack of evidence. In some of these cases suspects were on bail.

Similarly, the police registered 32 gang-rape cases during the eight months of which only 10 were resolved with their challans submitted and 22 accused arrested.

Official statistics available with Dawn show that out of the 113 rape cases reported to the police, 24 turned out to be ‘fake’ after investigations were conducted into them.

The police took 86 accused into custody out of 113 wanted in as many rape cases.

Of 32 gang-rape cases, only seven were discharged because of being fake while 15 others were ‘solved’ but still being probed into.

Out of 110 accused involved in gang-rape cases, police only arrested 22 during the first eight months of the year.

A senior police investigator told Dawn that mostly the victims in rape cases were teenaged girls. He said there could be several cases which were not reported to police because of the stigma attached to being victim of the crime.

He claimed the police solved a majority of cases, arresting the ‘rapists’ who were usually nominated.

The investigator said the police had to rely on physical evidence and suspects’ confessions in rape cases as eyewitness accounts were hardly available.

Senior Superintendent of Police (Investigation) Abdul Rab Chauhdry said many of the incidents had their roots in unchecked access of youth to internet and cable network. Mostly parents neither properly guide their children nor keep an eye on their activities on the internet, he added.

He said as such cases are hard to investigate, it usually led to submission of incomplete challans in courts.

Non-preservation of evidence, mishandling of DNA by forensic experts and doctors, delay in collection of victims’ swabs, involvement of innocent people in cases, delay in complaints to police and compromise between victim’s family and the accused party were among major factors behind submission of complete challans in courts, he said.