Foreigners' abduction, sexual assault case: Lahore police get custody of 3 more suspects for 5 days

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday handed over three more suspects to police on a five-day physical remand in the case of alleged abduction and sexual assault of two foreign women in Lahore’s Defence area.

A day earlier, police officials investigating the case told Dawn that all eight suspects nominated over the alleged abduction and sexual assault of the two women, including two high-profile individuals, had been arrested. The two foreign nationals departed Pakistan on July 3 after recovery.

The three suspects in question were produced before the magistrate at the Cantonment Courts on Monday. They were stated to be private security guards and servants of the prime suspects previously arrested by police.

During the hearing, a public prosecutor asked the court to grant the police custody of the suspects for 14 days. He said that weapons allegedly used in the offence were yet to be recovered from the suspects.

The prosecutor also informed the court that medical tests were required to determine the ages of the suspects as part of the investigation.

Before announcing its decision, the magistrate asked the suspects whether they wished to make any statement. The suspects, however, said they did not want to say anything.

The magistrate also asked whether the suspects had legal counsel. The suspects responded that no lawyer was appearing on their behalf.

After hearing the prosecution’s arguments, the magistrate gave police custody of the suspects for five days for further investigation.

Defence C police had registered the case on charges of abduction and sexual assault of two foreign women. Four suspects, including a relative of a senior political figure, are currently in police custody till July 8.

Meanwhile, a sessions court on Monday granted pre-arrest bail to a station house officer (SHO) over a case registered against him for allegedly barging into the official residence of a judicial magistrate to get the statements of the two foreign nationals recorded.

Mustafabad police had registered a case against SHO Faryad and other policemen of the Defence C police station. SHO Faryad appeared before the court on Monday, which granted him bail till July 10.

The police officials were accused of entering the official residence of Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mehmood by force and pressuring him to talk to Lahore Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran on the phone.

A day earlier, the DIG operations had apologised to the judiciary for the incident, but defended the move, saying that “if that had not happened, our media and international forums would have raised questions over our legal system”. ...