HYDERABAD: A woman who had accused a civil judge of subjecting her to sexual assault in his chamber dramatically retracted her statement and dropped all charges before a judicial magistrate in Sehwan on Wednesday.

According to Ayaz Tunio, counsel for the judge who was suspended in the wake of assault charges, the complainant had recorded a statement under Section 164 Cr.PC, and stated that since the judge was sending her back to her parents she levelled such charges against him in a fit of anger to stop him from doing so.

She said the door of the judge’s chamber was not locked and police recorded her statement in Darul Aman Larkana where she was sent by a judicial magistrate after she filed the complaint under 365-B.

The complainant did not go to Sehwan police station for lodging FIR with charges of sexual assault and she disclosed that the video that went viral was recorded by police at the police station and denied that she was subjected to sexual assault by the judge.

Sehwan police had lodged a case on Jan 22 on her complaint accusing the civil judge of sexual assault. According to the FIR lodged under Sections 376 and 506 PPC, the woman described the incident that allegedly took place in the lavatory of the judge’s courtroom.

She said that she had married a resident of Shahdadkot of her own free will and said police had picked her up as well as her husband on Jan 12. On Jan 13, police produced them before the court for recording of her statement under Section 164 CrPC, she said.

DSP Aurangzeb Abbasi was investigating the case after the formation of a joint interrogation team as the judge had expressed mistrust in Jamshoro police.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2020