Sept 15, 2024
Staff Report
LAHORE:
A court in Jacobabad on Saturday, September 14, remanded a suspect into police custody for seven days in connection with the alleged rape of a polio worker.
The police produced the suspect in the court of the Second Civil Judge in Jacobabad. The judge ordered police to present the accused again in the court after conducting his DNA sample forensic report.
A day earlier, the victim had testified before another court that she was raped and robbed at gunpoint while on polio duty in the Allah Baksh Jakhrani village on September 12. The village falls within the limits of Moladad police station. Initially, the police and the district administration said the victim was robbed. But the first information report registered with the Moladad police station quoted the victim as saying she was robbed of her mobile phone and money at gunpoint but did not mention any rape offence.
Following reports on social media, Jacobabad District and Sessions Judge Syed Sharafuddin Shah took suo motu notice of the incident. The judge summoned the police and district administration officials on Friday. During the hearing, the victim retracted her previous statement and testified that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint three days ago in Allah Bakhsh Jakhrani village. The district administration also told the court that the intial medical reports suggested the victim might have been raped.
On the other hand, the court rejected the police report submitted by the station house officer (SHO) at Mauladad police station, saying the report was incomplete. The judge ordered local police to submit a complete report by the next hearing, which was set for September 23.
Later, Jacobabad Deputy Commissioner Zahoor Murri and SSP Jacobabad Sumair Noor Channa held a press conference at the DC office, where Murri said that the victim was sexually assaulted. However, she could not give her statement as she was traumatised by the incident.
The DC added that the victim testified in court that she was sexually assaulted, adding she gave a different statement “due to our society’s attitude toward such victims”.
SSP Channa said that the victim was immediately shifted to the hospital after the incident where samples were taken for DNA testing. He added that police would include a sexual assault section in the FIR, as the victim had now testified in court that she had been sexually assaulted.
The SSP said that the police had already arrested the suspect and detained him at the local police station. He confirmed that a JIT had been formed on the court’s order, adding that the city’s deputy superintendent of police would head it.