RAWALPINDI: Four suspects, including two women, were detained after exhumation of the body of an orphan girl who was killed by poisoning after being subjected to sexual assault and torture for several months allegedly by her brother-in-law and his accomplice.

The exhumation revealed that the girl was eight months pregnant when she was poisoned in the limits of the Jatli police station and buried by the suspects to cover up the crime.

“In light of the circumstances and events, initial investigation, postmortem and forensic evidence, solid evidence of rape and poisoning of the victim has emerged,” a spokesman for the Rawalpindi police said on Sunday.

The 21-year-old was living with her sister’s in-laws after her parents’ death. She was subjected to torture and repeated rape allegedly by her sister’s husband and his neighbour.

After she became pregnant, she was tortured and forced to get an abortion. After the abortion efforts proved unproductive, they subjected her to physical assault and then gave her poison to hide their crime.

However, after the incident came to light on social media in January, the CPO took notice and sought court orders for the exhumation of the body.

According to the police, the incident took place on January 13, 2025, in the village of Natha Chhatar in the jurisdiction of the Jatli police station. Police registered an FIR while quoting sources that the 21-year-old victim was an orphan girl and her brother-in-law was looking after her but he and his accomplice repeatedly raped her.

Initially, the family tried to keep it secret but the truth came to light when they went to a hospital for an abortion. After they failed, they killed her and presented her killing as “natural death”.

After the police collected information from villagers and surrounding areas, it emerged that the girl’s parents had died and she had been living with her brother-in-law. The police said that after collecting the information from the villagers, the police decided to exhume the body to ascertain the actual circumstances of the death.

The report said that after the suspects - the deceased brother-in-law and her maternal aunt - were investigated, they disclosed that four to five days before the girl died, she had revealed that she was carrying their neighbour’s child.

On January 13, the maternal aunt took some poisonous pills available in the house, mixed them in water and forced the girl to drink when her sister was not at home, the police said while quoting their suspects’ statement.

After the court order on January 25, the grave was exhumed on Jan 29 and the initial postmortem revealed that the deceased was seven to eight months pregnant. The deceased’s sister told the police that her sister had told her that her husband, maternal aunt and another woman used to torture her and that her brother-in-law and neighbour had been sexually assaulting her.

She further said that on January 13, she found her maternal aunt and the other woman beating her sister with batons, alleging that they poisoned her sister. The police said that the final analysis and DNA samples regarding the poisoning had been sent to the Forensic Science Agency.

Meanwhile, the police spokesperson said that four suspects, including two women, have been arrested, involved in the Jatli rape-murder case.

“The suspects are being interrogated. Initial investigations indicate that the motive for the murder is an attempt to cover up the rape. The accused will be charged with solid evidence while investigating the merits of the case,” the police spokesman said.

According to CPO Khalid Hamdani, all legal requirements will be fulfilled to ensure that those involved in the incident are punished to the fullest extent of the law.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2025