NOWSHERA, Nov 4: Four men accused of molesting a newly-wedded woman in the Khesghi Payan locality on Friday night were sent to the judicial lock-up on Tuesday.

Bakht Taj, Tariq, Syedullah and Khalid were produced before Civil Judge-cum-Judicial Magistrate Rozina Rehman after completion of their interrogation by the police on Monday. All the accused denied the charge.

Meanwhile, sources said that due to pressure by the families of the accused, the victim family had been forced to enter into an out-of-court compromise with them. Initially, the elders of the accused were willing to pay Rs100,000 to the victim in compensation. Later, they reduced the amount to Rs40,000.

The victim’s husband told newsmen that he was a poor man unable to sustain the pressure. The daily-wage earner said he had left his house after he lodged the complaint with the police, but the accused’s families had been threatening his sister’s family.

He regretted that no official came to help him. Therefore, he said, he had no option but to forgive the accused.

The 16-year-old victim told a fact-finding team that the accused knocked on her room’s door at about 2am on Saturday. “When my husband opened the door they forcibly entered the room and started beating him,” she said. She said the intruders tied her husband and molested her.