Race Course Police will indict only one constable who it arrested late on Thursday night along with two other constables for allegedly raping a woman at a local hotel on October 24, while the other two will be indicted for aiding and abetting the crime and showing negligence in their duty, Pakistan Today learned on Friday.
The victim was identified as 30-year-old Nabeela Rasheed, a resident of Bhatta Chowk. According to the first information report (FIR) registered at the Race Course Women Police Station, Nabeela visited Services Hospital on October 24 in order to get the death certificate for her brother Shaukat, who had died at the hospital earlier from dengue fever. According to the FIR, Nabeela visited a doctor to get the certificate but the doctors and other hospital staff accused her of stealing a doctor’s laptop and handed her over to the police.
The FIR states that Head Constable Muhammad Iqbal and Constables Adnan and Muhammad Iqbal threatened Nabeela with ‘dire consequences’ saying that soon she would be charged with theft and would be thrashed by the women police officers while in custody. The FIR states further that they then tried to entice her with a promise that the charges would be dropped if she let them have their way with her, but when she refused, they took her to a local hotel (Green Hotel) near Shadman Chowk on the pretext of presenting her in front of a senior officer, where Iqbal raped her and the three of them fled.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Nabeela confirmed that she was taken to the hotel and raped. She said she was arrested by the constables on October 24 but was detained at Services Hospital Chowki until October 25 without a case being registered. She said initially the policemen demanded money from her in order to release her, but later raped her. She said only Constable Iqbal had raped her while his two accomplices just aided him. She said the policemen were now trying to butter her up and make her drop the charges against them, even going so far as to fabricate a story that she had tried to implicate them in a false case and asked for Rs 200,000 to drop the charges.
Police sources told Pakistan Today that the accused had confessed to their crime during initial investigations and investigators had prepared challans to present in court. They said it was proven in the preliminary investigation that Nabeela was raped by only one constable, following which investigators decide to indict him for rape while the other two for aiding and abetting.
Doctors’ negligence kills 30-year-old: Separately, a 30-year-old lawyer died because of the alleged negligence of doctors at Sheikh Zayed Hospital on Friday. The deceased was identified as Raffique Ijaz, a resident of Ferozewala district, Sheikhupura.
The family of the deceased lawyer said the doctors had diagnosed him with intestinal cancer and operated on him twice, but botched the surgeries and killed him to hide their negligence.
Police was informed of the incident and reached the scene and removed the dead body to Jinnah Hospital morgue for autopsy. Shabbir Hussain, father of the deceased lawyer, filed a first information report (FIR) against the doctors at Muslim Town Police Station with murder charges against the doctors. Police are investigating the matter but no arrests have been made yet.
