LAHORE: Police recorded the statement of the five-year-old rape victim at the Services Hospital on Thursday and took three more people into custody for interrogation.

According to the statement, the girl was picked up by three men in a car who took her to a vacant house. They gave the girl some eatables, including ice cream. The girl said she didn’t know what happened afterwards. She also didn’t know the suspects.

Following the statement, police took the owner of an ice cream factory and his accomplice into custody for questioning.

According to a TV channel, police also arrested one Safdar from a flat in Gulshan-i-Iqbal with the help of a sketch of a man who was seen in the CCTV footage holding the girl and entering Sir Ganga Ram Hospital where the girl was abandoned.

A senior police investigator told Dawn that Zafar, the man detained, resembled the man seen in the footage. He said three brothers who sold ice cream in Ghosia Colony were also being interrogated. The girl used to visit their shop.

The police officer said investigations carried out so far suggested that no staff of the hospital was involved in the crime and police were focusing on Ghosia Colony residents and people who used to visit the area. He said police had complete record of CCTV footages and no fresh footage was released to the media. Meanwhile, members of civil society held a rally on The Mall and demanded hanging of the culprits in public.

Police are still waiting for DNA results to complete their investigation into the rape case.