MULTAN, May 7: The man who reportedly headed the jury (Panchayat) in the Kabirwala 'rape case' was arrested by Khanewal police on Friday Khanewal acting DPO Saadullah Khan said that Malik Afzal, the landlord of tenants Ghaffar and Nawaz Mussali, headed the Panchayat.

Statements of the victims suggested that it was Afzal who had brought the women to the Panchayat. Meanwhile, a court in Kabirwala remand in police custody three of the six accused who were arrested from Dinga Naich village on Thursday.

Police produced the accused before civil judge Harris Ali Mian amid tight security and sought physical remand of only three - Ghaffar, Zahoor and Bashir. The police said that they had to recover a knife, a pistol and a lock from the custody of the accused.

They, however, did not ask for the physical remand of the three alleged jurors - Haji Sultan, Haji Najmal and Ahmed Nawaz. At this, the judge sent the jurors to jail on a 14-day judicial remand.

Talking to newsmen outside the courtroom, accused Ghaffar denied that he had raped 'Mz' and 'Md' and instead claimed that he had just thrashed them to avenge the humiliation. The jurors said that Ghaffar had dragged the girls to the room without panchayat's consent. "We didn't order a rape for a rape," they told newsmen.

Meanwhile, medical examination of 'Mz' could not be conducted so far due to her non-cooperative attitude, Dr Shugufta Khatoon at the forensic department of Nishter Hospital reported. The doctor has now referred her to a gynaecologist for a complete examination.

It was learnt that the police had obtained medical examination reports of 'Md' and 'S'. Khanewal acting DPO Saadullah Khan said that doctors could not find any torture mark on the bodies of both 'Md' and 'S'. The former had been found four-month pregnant while the latter's medical report declared her non-virgin. 'S' is the unmarried daughter of accused Ghaffar.

Ghaffar had called a panchayat (council of village elders) few days ago alleging that his neighbour Nawaz Mussali's son Riaz had raped his daughter 'S'. When the panchayat was convened Ghaffar reportedly pleaded a 'befitting' punishment to Riaz's family for dishonouring him.

The jurors, however, said that if Riaz's sister 'Mz' would seek apology for the act of her brother the matter could be resolved 'amicably'. But when 'Mz' along with her sister-in-law 'Md' turned up to the panchayat, Ghaffar allegedly dragged them to a nearby room and raped them.

The jurors allegedly neither refrained him from doing so nor did they lodge a complaint with the police about the incident. The police took note of the matter when the incident hit headlines in newspapers the other day.

On Thursday, two separate cases were registered, one on the report of Nawaz Mussali against six people, including Ghaffar and the three jurors, while the other on the report of 'S' against Riaz and his sister-in-law Shamim Mai. Police had rounded up all the six people accused in the FIR lodged by Nawaz on Thursday night.