LAHORE, April 29: An FIA inspector was suspended from service on Saturday, over two months after his personal employees allegedly raped a woman while impersonating as agency officials and extorted Rs200,000 from her husband.

Official sources told Dawn that the victim’s husband, Mazhar Yasin, was accused of taking money from two people —- one of Shahkot and the other a resident of Nankana Sahib —- for arranging their travel abroad.

They said passport circle (Gujranwala) Inspector Asim Butt, the inquiry officer in the case, forced the woman to “cooperate” with Sardar Khan and Abdul Sattar, introducing them as FIA officials. The impersonating officials received Rs200,000 from Mazhar for exonerating him from the charges.

Meanwhile, Mazhar reached an agreement with Shafi and Razzaq (complainants), and filed an application with the agency to withdraw the case. The FIA inspector refused to entertain the application and asked Ms Mazhar to approach his ‘juniors’ .

The impersonating officials, who used to sit in Asim’s office, however, forced the woman to meet them at Gujranwala passport office if she wanted to exonerate her husband from the charges. When she came there Sardar Khan and Abdullah took her to a house and raped her, they said.

The woman reported the incident to the FIA director who appointed deputy-director Mushtaq Ahmed Sukhera to investigate the rape allegations.

According to the inquiry report, Sardar and Abdul Sattar had been involved in the investigation process on behalf of Asim Butt. “They (accused) harassed and intimidated the couple in order to extort money, and also forced the woman to develop relations with them,” it said.

The report said the circumstantial evidence proved that the rape had been committed. “Asim Butt is fully responsible for illegally hiring the services of private persons during the investigation, interrogation and writing files. The inspector illegally allowed them to use his office against the directions of the agency’s director-general.”

It said Mazhar Yasin himself and the two complainants had actually paid the money to an agent, Iqbal, who promised to send them to Saudi Arabia but no action was initiated against him (Iqbal).

It recommended strict action against the impersonating FIA officials, and the inspector, and also submitted that a case must be referred to the local police.

FIA Director-General Tariq Pervaiz told this reporter that Asim Butt had been suspended from service and a committee had been constituted to further probe into the incident.

He said action against the inspector had been taken on the base of preliminary inquiry. He said as many as 30 officials of the FIA had been dismissed from service on different charges and six were arrested in recent past.

Mr Pervaiz said no official found involved in corruption would be spared.