MULTAN, July 25: The medial board constituted to examine mental health of an ‘insane’ girl, reportedly gang-raped on the premises of Alipur tehsil courts, has yet to submit its findings.
The board was constituted on Wednesday last on the request of Muzaffargarh police to examine the victim, Shabana, 22.
The police had actually applied to the medical superintendent of Alipur tehsil headquarter hospital for the constitution of a board. But due to insufficient arrangements, THQ hospital MS Dr Zulfiqar Haider referred the police request to the Muzaffargarh district headquarters hospital. DHQ hospital MS Dr Ameer Bakhsh, after constituting a board comprising himself as chairman, a physician, a surgeon and a psychiatrist, admitted the victim to the hospital to keep her under observation.
Dr Ameer told Dawn that there was no psychiatrist in the DHQ hospital. However, medical officer Dr Jamil had been included in the board for having qualification in the relevant field.
He said the victim could be kept under observation for five to seven days to judge her mental health.
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Multan coordinator Advocate Rashid Rehman expressed his concern over the way police were handling the case — instead of apprehending the accused they had been taking the victim to task despite the fact that so far none of the accused had challenged the mental credentials of the victim.
When contacted, Muzaffargarh district police officer Salman Chaudhry said the police did not want to arrest any person who had no role in the incident on the basis of what he said initial findings.
The DPO alleged that she was an “amateur prostitute” and the matter came out of the bag over the dispute of ‘payment’.
“We will, however, try our best to arrest the actual accused but only after separating chalk from cheese,” he maintained.
The mother of victim, Sughran, told this scribe that the man who was made a complainant was not related to her. She said the family was told about registration of an FIR after doing so.
She alleged that police, in a bid to save some of their colleagues and friends, were levelling baseless allegations against her daughter.
She said her daughter was not a prostitute but insane. Meanwhile, a source in police department said they were searching a man nicknamed Kaku about whom the victim often pointed out as the person who took her to the tehsil court.
Shabana was reportedly raped by several people on July 11 in the chamber of a lawyer situated in front of the court of additional district and sessions judge. After a judicial inquiry the case was lodged with the Alipur city police station against 13 people after a week of the incident. Police could so fare arrest only three of them.
Her initial medical examination conducted on July 18 confirmed commission of sexual act with her but found no marks of violence on her body.
Meanwhile, DPO Salman Chaudhry visited the Alipur on Friday to take stock of the police investigations. Delegations from all walks of life met him and demanded exemplary punishments for the tormentors of an insane girl.