SAHIWAL, Jan 19: Three brothers suspected of gang-raping and selling a 16-year-old girl have got themselves absolved of the case registered against them with police.

They have rather got a case instituted against the parents of the girl for running a brothel, it is learnt here on Monday. Reports said Muhammad Aslam Tahir, a newly convert Muslim who works as a stamp vendor at the district courts, and his wife Rani had gone to condole the death of a relative when a youth in their neighbourhood at Junejo Colony kidnapped their daughter.

The suspect, Rafi, a ward servant at the DHQ hospital and his brothers - Muhammad Nadeem and Muhammad Shafiq - allegedly took the girl to Chak 66-GD, gang-raped her for few days sold her in Multan.

On returning home, Aslam inquired about the whereabouts of his daughter from the suspects' mother, Khurshid Bibi, who first expressed ignorance and then claimed that she would return home very soon.

However, Aslam got a case registered with Farid Town police under the Islamic Law on Nov 11, 2003 against the brothers. He claimed that he paid Rs15,000 to ASI Ali Sher for the process of issuing challans to the suspects.

Meanwhile, the kidnapped girl reportedly escaped from Multan area and reached her home on Nov 16 and was produced in court on Dec 3. The court asked for the girl's medical examination after which DHQ hospital medical officer Uzma Ashraf issued her medico-legal mentioning her age 18-19 years instead of 16 years. The age was corrected, however, on the family's protest.

The victim's father alleged that the investigation had been changed on his request for several times, but the police allegedly favoured the suspects during the entire process and ultimately exonerated them from the charges without any recovery of valuables they had plundered from the house at the time of kidnap.

Talking to newsmen the other day, Aslam said the suspects were threatening him with murder, as he did not accept their request for withdrawal of the case.

He said Haji Noor Muhammad, who was one of the alleged supporters of the chief suspect, had got registered a case against him under 13/14 Islamic Law for running a brothel on Jan 14, 2004. He also alleged that the suspects were being supported by Provincial Minister Arshad Lodhi and a brother of the Multan's DPO.Aslam threatened that he and his wife would set themselves ablaze outside the Governor's House, if justice was not dispensed to the family.