GUJRAT: An 18-year-old girl on Saturday died at the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital after alleged gang rape.

The girl’s family bemoaned that she had been murdered as she was administered tranquiliser by the main suspect. Police, however, claimed the girl had committed suicide after failing to convince a person she was alleged to have an affair with to marry her.

Police said they had already arrested the main suspect and added charges of murder to the gang-rape case against three people.

The mother of the girl, a resident of Ghazi Chak village, lodged a complaint with the Gujrat Saddar police on Sept 3 that a youngster along with his accomplices abducted her daughter outside the house. She said the suspects administered some tranquilizer and raped her after which they dropped her daughter in a nearby housing colony along GT Road near Kathala.

The girl was shifted to the Aziz Bhatti Shaheed Teaching Hospital where she breathed her last.

Asad Gujjar, a spokesman for the Gujrat police, told Dawn that police had lodged a case under sections 365B, 375A and 337J of Pakistan Penal Code against one nominated and two unidentified suspects and arrested the main suspect. As the girl had died in the hospital, section 302 of PPC had also been added to the case as per the statement of the complainant.

He said doctors had conducted an initial medical examination to ascertain whether she was gang-raped and later on autopsy of the deceased girl had also been conducted at the ABSTH. The swabs had been sent to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA), Lahore, for forensic report.

He said initial investigation had revealed that the girl had consumed poisonous pills after which she was shifted to the hospital where she died.

He said the family of the main suspect had also submitted an application with Gujrat DPO Umar Salamat wherein they alleged that their son had wrongly been implicated in the case through a fabricated story. Police, he said, were investigating the case from all aspects but forensic evidence was awaited to reach any conclusion.

Published in Dawn, September 6th, 2021