Court extends physical remand of suspects in alleged kidnapping, rape of two foreign women

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday granted Defence C police a further four-day physical remand of four suspects, including one related to a senior political figure, in the case involving the alleged abduction and rape of two foreign women.

Five suspects were booked for alleged abduction and sexual assault earlier this month after the women — nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela — were rescued. Four of them were arrested and later sent on a five-day physical remand.

The suspects were produced before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mehmood at the Cantonment Courts upon the expiry of their previous remand.

The investigating officer (IO) sought further custody of the suspects to complete the investigation.

He said police had recovered the suspects’ mobile phones and the vehicle allegedly used in the commission of the offence. However, the recovery of money allegedly linked to the case was still pending.

Advocate Salman Shahid appeared on behalf of three of the suspects, while no counsel appeared for the prime suspect, who is reportedly a relative of a political leader.

Opposing the remand request, the defence counsel argued that police had failed to disclose what it had achieved during the previous 10-day remand. He contended that the complainants had identified only four suspects, but the police were arbitrarily implicating additional individuals in the case.

The lawyer further stated that no identification parade of the suspects had yet been conducted. He argued that, under the law, the investigation should have been carried out by a female police officer.

He also requested the court to discharge the three suspects from the case.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the magistrate extended the physical remand of all four suspects by another four days.

Separately, a sessions court dismissed the interim pre-arrest bail of the station house officer (SHO) of Defence C police for non-prosecution after he allegedly unlawfully entered the official residence of the judicial magistrate hearing the high-profile case involving the two foreign women.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Abdul Quddus passed the order after the SHO failed to appear before the court upon the expiry of his interim bail.

According to the first information report (FIR), the SHO is accused of unlawfully entering the judicial magistrate’s residence and threatening him.

The FIR further alleges that the police officer unlawfully entered the magistrate’s house at night and pressured him to talk to the deputy inspector general (DIG) of operations on a phone call.

The DIG, Faisal Kamran, addressing a press conference on July 5, apologised to the judiciary for the incident, but he still defended the move, saying that “if that had not happened, our media and international forums would have raised questions over our legal system”.

Kamran also said that the police were ordered to treat the prime suspect like “any other criminal” despite his reported links to a senior government minister.

In testimony recorded before the magistrate earlier this month, the women detailed a multi-day ordeal involving their alleged kidnapping, million-dollar extortion, physical assault and sexual abuse.

The charges include severe offences under sections 375-A (rape) and 365-A (kidnapping for extortion) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). ...