JHANG: City police have let off the hook all the influential suspects nominated in a gang-grape case and dismissed the first information report (FIR).

The victim had sought court orders to get the FIR registered against the suspects allegedly after police had refused to file a report.

The girl, along with her parents and other relatives, while addressing a press conference at the district press club on Sunday said she belonged to a poor family from a village of Pirmahal tehsil, Toba Tekh Singh district. She alleged that an influential landlord in the village wanted to establish illicit relations with her and on her refusal he threatened to kidnap her. Considering the situation, her parents shifted her to the house of a close relative, Asghar Ali, who lived near Rashid Chowk, old Jhang city, she added.

She further said the landlord found out about her whereabouts and one day when she was going back home from a market along with Asghar Ali’s wife, four people kidnapped her at gunpoint and took her to a farmhouse at Pirmahal where all four raped her for days.

Her parents approached police for her recovery, but they did not help them. Her parents then filed a writ petition and a court bailiff recovered and produced the girl in court. On her statement, the court handed over her custody to her parents besides ordering criminal proceedings against the nominated accused.

She said that following court orders, the City police lodged an FIR under section 496/A of PPC against the four nominated. But the suspects produced fake documents regarding her marriage with one of those nominated and police dismissed the FIR.

She alleged that the station house officer and investigation officer of City police had received a huge bribe from the suspects. She appealed to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and inspector general of police to order an independent investigation through an honest and component officer to ensure justice was delivered.

Rejecting charges, City SHO Mazhar Tabassum said police investigation sowed the complainant had married the accused.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2017