Jamshoro police on Sunday claimed that the health officials are responsible for the lack of progress in the case of a 6-year-old girl who was allegedly raped in Jamshoro on Sept 30, a private media outlet reported.
The police said that the suspect was taken into custody right after the victim had identified the accused which was followed by the registration of an FIR against him under Sections 376 and 511 of the Pakistan Penal Code. Speaking of the evidence, the police claimed that the bloodstained clothes, blood and DNA samples were taken from both suspect and victim for testing purposes.
However, the family of the minor girl had a different account of the incident as they claimed that the FIR was registered three days after the alleged assault, maintaining that the police is behind the delay in the issuance of the medical report in order to protect the suspect.
The suspect’s father is said to be a to be a police officer at the station where the investigation of the case is going on.
However, Senior Superintendent Police Touqeer Muhammad Naeem pinned the blame for the delay on health officials, claiming they are using “delaying tactics” by not issuing a medical report.
He said that justice would be dispensed to the victim’s family without any delay “and if any police officer is found guilty of delaying the investigation, they will be punished strictly”. He added that he would monitor the investigation himself and has demanded a progress report in two days.
Investigation team member, Station House Officer Jamshoro Ashfaq Manghi ─ who works at the police station where the case is registered ─ said it is routine to send test samples in such cases to a chemical examiner’s lab in Karachi.
However, the lab’s director was transferred on Sept 6, and when police officials went there to find out more about the report, they were told that the lab would only provide reports once a new director is appointed, SHO Manghi said.
Subsequently, SSP Naeem wrote a letter to the health secretary asking for the clothes and other test samples to be returned to police so that they could be tested at LUMHS in Jamshoro instead.
