ISLAMABAD: A complainant on Thursday while appearing in a court backtracked from her previous allegation that she had been raped by a government official.

The Shahzad Town police had registered a case against a government officer and arrested him on the complaint of the woman belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Despite the complainant’s statement, the court handed over the accused to the police on one-day physical remand.

Sources in the police told Dawn that the counsel for the accused on Thursday sought bail of his client informing the court that the complainant woman and the accused had reached a compromise. When the judge sought a response from the woman, she said that she had not been raped.

The sources said after the arrest of the accused, the Shazad Town police officials were contacted by some of their senior officers, asking them to favour the accused. However, the SHO and the investigation officer (IO) in the case refused to do so stating that the accused had been nominated in the case with his name and that the copies of the FIR as well as his picture had already been released to the media. Moreover, they said, the accused had already confessed to having committed his crime in his statement.

When the complainant was approached, she refused to talk and simply replied that “police are corrupt and greedy.”

Senior Superintendent of Police (Operations) Dr Syed Mustafa Tanweer, who is also director media in the department, when contacted, provided the details of the case proceedings, stated that besides backtracking from her earlier statement, the complainant told the court that the police had registered the case and recorded her statement against her will.

He said the woman also claimed before the court that her medical examination was conducted against her will.

The judge then summoned the medical officer, who had conducted the medical examination, and the assistant commissioner, who had recorded her statement to verify her claim, the SSP said.

The two officers, he said, refuted the complainant’s statement before the court.

The SSP further said that the accused was now also denying the allegations and had backtracked from his statement given to the police.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2021