LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday allowed Defence C police a six-day physical remand of two suspects in a case against them over the alleged gang-rape of an Azeri woman.
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 located near Raiwind on the night between Friday and Saturday.
One of the prime suspects had been arrested on Monday, while another’s arrest surfaced on Tuesday. According to Lahore Deputy Inspector General (Investigation) Zeeshan Raza, police had identified the third suspect and were conducting raids to trace him.
On Tuesday, the police produced the two arrested men before Magistrate Azhar Mahmood at Cantonment Courts.
The investigating officer sought their 14-day physical remand for interrogation, collection of evidence and DNA examination.
However, the magistrate approved a six-day physical remand of the suspects.
Woman says suspects told her to drink alcohol
The judicial proceedings came a day after the foreign woman recorded her statement before Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Sagheer under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Police Sub-Inspector Faryal Malik, the investigating officer, had produced the woman before the magistrate under strict security arrangements.
In her statement, a copy of which is available with Dawn, the woman 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 and later accompanied her to a house in Bahria Town to meet the other.
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, one of the women took between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 from the first suspect, saying the money was for a party, while the second woman 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.
The case
The Defence C police had registered a case against three unidentified suspects on Sept 26 on the woman’s complaint.
Police had also taken two close relatives and a domestic servant of one of the suspects into custody. The vehicle allegedly used in the incident had also been taken into custody.
On Sunday, Lahore police had requested federal authorities to place the names of the three prime suspects in the case on the Provisional National Identification List (PNIL), saying they had fled Lahore shortly after the alleged assault.
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.
The post Lahore court grants police 6-day remand of two suspects in Azeri woman's gang-rape case appeared first on Dawn – Home.
