LAHORE: Police claim to have arrested a man suspected of raping a woman in Wahdat Colony on Thursday.

A case under rape charges was registered against the suspect at Wahdat Colony police station on the complaint of the woman who claimed she was a British citizen. However, police denied the claim.

She pleaded in her application that she had come to Pakistan to attend the funeral of her father six months ago and initially lived with her stepmother in Cantt.

Later, the stepmother told her to leave after which she shifted to the house of her father’s friend in Wahdat Colony on June 26.

She alleged that the son of her father’s friend entered her room at 4am on June 27 and started behaving with her inappropriately and when she tried to stop him, the suspect threatened her with dire consequences and raped her.

“I fell ill the next day and asked the suspect to take me to a hospital which he did not and kept me detained in a room at his house, raping me for three days,” she alleged.

The woman reported the matter to the police on the 15 helpline on June 29.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and IGP Inam Ghani took notice of the incident and sought a report from the capital city police officer.

Police arrested the suspect from his residence on Thursday and started an investigation.

However, investigating officer Irfan claimed that the woman’s statements in the FIR were contrary to the facts gleaned from the probe.

He claimed the suspect and the woman had an affair and whatever transpired between the two was consensual, rejecting her allegations of rape.

He said the families of the two were involved in the matter and that the woman now wished to marry the suspect. She did not belong to the UK either, Irfan claimed.

The woman could not be reached for comments as the contact number mentioned in the FIR purportedly as hers belonged to someone else.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2021