MULTAN: The girl who had accused a PML-N Punjab Assembly member from Jahanian of rape and blackmail a few days back on Thursday recorded her statement before the area magistrate.

Meanwhile, the Bahauddin Zakariya police had already lodged a case against the MPA, fearing the girl might have been abducted by the lawmaker.

“The girl with her mother and brother came to the police station at the Violence Against Women Crisis Centre and was produced before the area magistrate to record her statement under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC),” Bahauddin Zakariya Police Station in charge told Dawn.

He said the FIR on behalf of the girl was lodged by the police as she had “gone missing”.

“The statement of the girl has been recorded by the magistrate and police will get a copy of it on Friday (today). If she has accused the MPA of raping and making video clips of her, the police will take action against him,” the station house officer (SHO) claimed.

He denied having earlier refused to lodge an FIR against the MPA, claiming the girl never approached him with such a request.

However, sources told Dawn that the girl in her statement denied she was raped.

The police had lodged an FIR against the MPA under section 376, 377 and 365 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Advocate Iftikhar Gill, the lawyer who had appeared in the court of area magistrate on July 17 seeking court direction for the Nishtar Hospital medical superintendent to conduct her medical examination, said the police did not allow him to meet the girl.

He claimed the girl was first taken to the counsel for the suspect MPA and one of the assistants from the chamber of the counsel appeared before the magistrate on behalf of the girl.

He alleged the girl recorded her statement under duress which had no legal value.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2019