As the family of a gang-rape victim is running from pillar to post to get justice, the Koral Police officials, while keeping alive the traditional tactics, have started sucking the financial resources of the poor family under the pretext of carrying out investigation. On November 11 last year, a mother of four, ‘S’, went missing from her house but was released after 28 days by the abductors, who raped her during the period.
Her spouse Tahir Mahmood told Pakistan Today that his neighbour Shafqat Hussain took some photos of ‘S’ and later morphed them to blackmail her. Tahir, poor bread-maker by profession, further said that on November 11 last year, Shafqat met ‘S’ at a medical store and showed her morphed nude pictures and induced her to sit in his car.
Upon this, S sit in Shafqat car, but after travelling for a while, the accused tied a rope blindfolded his wife and took her to some unidentified place, where he handed her over to his friends. Tahir said during the period, the accused raped her wife for 28 days before releasing her on December 12. He said on his complaint, the Koral Police registered an FIR against Shafqat and his three accomplices. But, according to Tahir, police after taking bribe weakened the case and provided the three accused an opportunity to get pre-arrest bail. He said one accused, Altaf, who even did not have pre-arrest bail, was often seen with an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of Koral Police Station, who was investigating the case.
Tahir alleged that the police was all set to give a clean chit to those who ruined his wife life after receiving Rs 0.3 million in bribe. He said the investigating officer (IO) was demanding money to proceed further. “So far, the IO got Rs 40,000 from me. Now, I have nothing to pay him and he is not cooperating with me,” Tahir said. He further alleged that some days ago, he met with the IO at a hotel in front of PIMS, where the cop and his friends had a lavish lunch and asked him to pay Rs 1,700. “I had to place my belongings with the hotel management as a guarantee,” Tahir said, as tears rolled down on his face.
Moreover, in her statement before the magistrate, ‘S’ said that Shafqat had a number of videos and nude photos of other girls of the vicinity and he was blackmailing them too. Talking to Pakistan Today, Advocate Raja Anam alleged that the IO was trying to change the nature of the case. He said statement of the victim before the magistrate was sufficient to proceed against the accused, but the police were using delaying tactics. When contacted, IO of the case, ASI Malik Sadeeq, said since, inquiry of the case was underway he could not talk on the issue. When pressed that the victim family was levelling allegation against him of taking bribe from them and accused party, the IO termed it as baseless.
