LAHORE(National Times)- A judicial magistrate on Saturday sent a woman suspect to jail on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with a case of an Azeri woman’s rape.
The 20-year-old Azerbaijan national had travelled to Pakistan for business purposes and was allegedly gang-raped by three men in a rented flat of a private housing society near Raiwind on the night between Sept 25 and Sept 26. Two of those men had been arrested and were sent on a six-day physical remand on Tuesday.
In her statement, the complainant had named two women with whom she had met before the men accused of raping her gathered with them at an apartment. One woman had secured pre-arrest bail while the other was arrested and sent on a three-day physical remand on Wednesday.
On Saturday, upon the completion of her remand, the police produced the woman suspect before Magistrate Azhar Mahmood.
The investigating officer told the magistrate that as further custody of the suspect was not required for investigation, she could be sent to jail on judicial remand.
Subsequently, the magistrate allowed the request and sent the suspect on a 14-day judicial remand until Oct 17.
Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Investigation Syed Zeeshan Raza noted that a total of three suspects have been arrested so far, while one was still at large.
Addressing a press conference, the DIG said swabs of the survivor and the suspects were taken and sent to the forensic science agency for further investigation. The ages of the suspects were between 25 and 30 years.
He also claimed that the suspects had confessed to their crime and police were continuing their investigation.
DIG Raza said the suspects had threatened the woman for having contacts with influential people and stopped her from approaching the police.
Survivor’s statement
The Defence C police had registered a first information report (FIR) against three unidentified suspects on September 26 on the Azeri woman’s complaint.
In her statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the survivor said she had arrived in Islamabad from Istanbul on Sept 13 and stayed in Faisalabad for five days before travelling to Lahore.
“I had a plan to visit Skardu, but I could not go there because I was alone,” she said.
According to her, on the day of the alleged incident, she messaged two women, asking them to meet her in Lahore.
At around 11pm, she went to a cafe where she met one of them — the woman sent on remand today — and later accompanied her to a house in Bahria Town to meet the other, who has secured pre-arrest bail until Oct 5.
The complainant told the magistrate that at around 2am, a white car arrived carrying two men, one of whom was sent on remand on Tuesday (first suspect).
Later, they moved to an apartment where two more men arrived, one of whom was the second person sent on remand (second suspect), while she did not know the name of the other man.
According to the complainant, in a separate room, the woman on bail took between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 from the first suspect, saying the money was for a party, while the woman now on remand also joined them.
The Azeri woman said she made it clear that she “did not need money or alcohol”. She alleged that the first suspect tried to touch her and locked her in a separate room.
When she asked about her friends, she was told that they had left. When she tried to leave, the complainant said she was told that she could not go because her friends had taken money.
The victim said she offered to pay the men, but they told her that she would have to drink alcohol with them before they would let her go.
She alleged that the three men raped her.
She further stated that the suspects then put her in a car and threw her out at an unknown location, while threatening her with dire consequences if she approached the police.
According to her statement, the suspects also took her handbag containing Rs200,000, an iPhone 13 Pro Max and another mobile phone.
She then requested some people present there to help her call the police emergency number 15, following which the police arrived.
It is the second such case in which a foreign woman was reportedly gang-raped in the Defence C police station area during the last four months.
In June, two foreign women, nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela, were allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted in the Defence C police station area.
According to the FIR, the women were abducted by five suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, who demanded ransom and subjected them to sexual assault during their captivity.
