MULTAN, Aug 6: An anti-terrorism court acquitted on Saturday two persons accused of criminally assaulting two female singers in May last year. Judge Zahoorul Haq Rana of the Multan ATC No 1 acquitted Sohail Akhtar and Shahid Nabeel for want of evidence against them. The incident had hit the headlines as the victims had alleged that they were brutalised by six men, including four, who were in police uniform. The victims ‘S’ and ‘T’ were on their way home on a motorcycle-rickshaw after performing at a marriage party in Sameejabad area on May 14, 2004, when they were reportedly intercepted by a police mobile unit of the New Multan Police Station.

They had alleged that the police took them under pretext of ‘interrogation’ to a place that looked like a police station where ‘S’ was gang-raped by four people and ‘T’ by two others. Later, their perpetrators left them unconscious on a deserted road in Shah Rukn-i-Alam Colony.

Medical examination confirmed that they had been raped and that there were multiple torture marks on their bodies. The police however registered the case on the report of the NMPS in-charge Saeed Gujjar despite that fact that the officials of the same police stations were being accused of involvement in the case. Simultaneously, some extraordinary things happened at top level of the police regarding the case.

The then inspector general of Punjab police, Saadatullah Khan, wrote a letter to the chief justice of the Lahore High Court, urging him to order a judicial inquiry into the gang-rape of the singers to ascertain whether the policemen were involved. A letter of same nature was sent to the Multan district and sessions judge by the then district police officer Hamid Mukhtar Gondal.

In the meanwhile, the police presented two persons — Sohail Akhtar and Shahid Nabeel — before the newsmen at a press conference held on May 18 last year and claimed that only they were involved in the crime. The arrested persons also readily confessed to the sin before the media.

The next day an identification parade was carried out before the victims to further confirm the ‘culprits’. The victims identified the arrested persons as two of their perpetrators. However, none of the NMPS officials was paraded in the identification exercise.

An additional district and sessions judge conducted the judicial inquiry and exonerated the policemen in his findings despite the fact that the victims had not even deposed before him that they were raped by six people, including four in police uniform, although they had recorded the same statement before a judicial magistrate under section 164 CrPC.

The judicial inquiry officer however had rejected the accusation by the victims against the policemen on the basis of ‘contradictions’ in their statements.

Father of victim ‘S’ reportedly could not bear the shock and died within a few days of the incident. A newspaper hawker, he was bed-ridden for some times due to illness. ‘S’ had to opt the profession of singing at parties to earn bread and butter for her family after her father’s virtual retirement. Later, the family migrated to Faisalabad.

Family sources said that their lawyers were not interested in the case as the victims could not afford litigation expenses.