HYDERABAD, Oct 2: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, here on Wednesday ordered a judicial inquiry into a rape case.

The district and sessions judge, Parkash Lal M. Ambwani, will investigate the case in which a minority woman was raped by two police officials and their friend during her custody at the Tando Mohammad Khan police station.

The bench comprised Justice Amir Hani Muslim and Justice Baqar Maqbool.

Somlo, the husband of the woman, had sent a telegram regarding the incident to the high court which was converted into a petition.

The petitioner said he along with his wife, Riyan, his mother-in-law, Ganga, and three children were returning from Rama Pir mela on Sept 21 when ASI Atta Mohammad and ASI Maula Bux Jamali and their friend, Mumtaz Ali, intercepted them near his in-laws’ house in Tando Mohammad Khan.

He alleged he along with Ganga and the three children were locked in a quarter and his wife was taken to a separate room where she was raped. He added, except for his wife, they were released.

He claimed ASI Atta had demanded bribe from him for the release of his wife which he failed to pay and added, the next day, his wife was challaned and sent to special women prison in Karachi.

The petitioner said when he met his wife in Karachi prison, she told him that on Sept 21 and 23 she was raped by the two ASIs and their friend.

He prayed the court to order registration of a criminal case against the police officials and against the superintendent of the prison for keeping his wife in wrongful detention.

The officials of the Tando Mohammad Khan police turned up in the court and the woman was brought to the court later in the day after the bench called to produce her from Karachi prison through Sindh AAG Massod A. Noorani.

The woman was cross-examined by state counsels, the SHO of the Tando Mohammad Khan police, Mohammad Khan Zaur, and ASI Atta.

She repeated the version, disclosed in the telegram by her husband, of having been raped by police officials.

She told the court she was medically examined twice by doctors while she was in custody and added the policemen had also deprived her of her gold and silver ornaments.

The woman said while she was being produced before the court, the SHO had threatened her not to make statement against the policemen.

The TPO of Tando Mohammad Khan, Miandad Jakhro, and ASI Atta filed their statements before the court, stating therein the woman was challaned in crime no 153/02 after she was arrested by ASI Atta.

The TPO said the SHO concerned had received a message that a woman was being raped in the house of Pervez Ahmad Khaskheli in B & R Colony, Tando Mohammad Khan.