LAHORE: Additional District & Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Rafaqat Ali Gondal on Tuesday recused himself from hearing the bail application of Ahmed Tanveer, a key suspect, in the rape case of an Azeri woman, and referred the matter to the Lahore High Court for further proceedings.

Earlier, Advocate Safdar Shaheen Pirzada, counsel for the suspect, filed an application seeking exemption for his client from personal appearance before the court.

The counsel stated that the suspect’s interim bail expired on Oct 27, but he could not appear before the court because he had been arrested in another case.

He said Ahmed was in jail for a 14-day identification parade in connection with the other case.

He asked the court to exempt the petitioner/suspect from appearing for one hearing.

However, AD&SJ Gondal expressed his inability to hear the matter.

The judge informed the counsel that he had prepared a reference of the matter and forwarded it to the high court for further action.

Without naming a case, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, last week, had alleged that in a recent rape case, it was revealed that the suspect’s wealthy family allegedly offered huge money to the victim in exchange for withdrawing her allegations, despite her statement already having been recorded under Section 164.

“It was further alleged that the judge who granted bail to the accused had also been bribed,” she added.

Defence-C police had registered the case on the complaint of the Azeri woman, who accused three men of subjecting her to gang rape. She also accused two women of abetment in the crime.

Now all five male and female suspects are in police custody.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2026