By Staff Reporter
LAHORE: A court in Lahore has ordered two men accused of gang-raping a young Azerbaijani woman to be held in police custody for six days, as detectives search for a third suspect and the complainant’s account of the night has emerged.
Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood, sitting at the Cantonment Courts, granted the remand on Tuesday. The investigating officer had asked for 14 days to question the men, gather evidence and carry out DNA tests. The magistrate approved less than half that period. Both men kept their faces covered with sheets in court to avoid the cameras.
The investigating officer told the court that DNA testing of the suspects was still to be done and that the arrest of one nominated female suspect was pending.
The woman, who travelled to Pakistan on business, alleges she was raped by three men in a rented flat in a private housing society near Raiwind Road, in the jurisdiction of Defence C police station, on the night of Friday 25 to Saturday 26 September. Police put her age at 20. She told a magistrate she was 22. The Independent does not identify people who report sexual offences.
A case was registered on Saturday against three unidentified men. Police said the second suspect was arrested in southern Punjab and that the woman’s medical examination confirmed sexual assault. Officials have named the two men in custody as Mohsin and Ali. Local media identified the third suspect as Tanveer, and police said raids were under way to find him. Lahore’s Deputy Inspector General (Investigation), Zeeshan Raza, said the third man had been identified.
On Sunday, police asked federal authorities to put the names of the three main suspects on the Provisional National Identification List, which restricts travel abroad, saying they had left Lahore soon after the alleged attack. Two close relatives and a domestic servant of one suspect were also taken into custody, along with the vehicle allegedly used. Police said the car was recovered from the house of a relative of the main suspect. Police sources also said six close friends of the main suspects were being questioned. Two mobile phones belonging to the woman have not been found.
The complainant’s account
The woman gave her statement to Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Sagheer under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure on Monday. She was brought to court under tight security. Details emerged on Tuesday.
She said she flew from Istanbul to Islamabad on 13 September and spent five days in Faisalabad before travelling to Lahore. She had planned to go on to Skardu, in the north, but abandoned the trip because she was travelling alone. Instead she messaged two women and arranged to meet.
She said she went to a café at about 11pm, met one of the women there, and was taken to meet the other. At about 2am, she said, two men arrived in a white car. They later moved to an apartment, where two more men arrived.
She alleged that one of the women took between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 from one of the men, saying it was for a party. The complainant said she made clear she wanted neither money nor alcohol. She alleged that one man then tried to touch her and confined her to a separate room.
When she asked where the two women were, she said, she was told they had left. She said she was told she could not go because her friends had taken money. She offered to pay Rs30,000 herself but was told more had been taken. She alleged that a man she named as Ali Aziz threatened her. He then said he would call the police emergency line, 15, she said, and she told him to go ahead. When no one came after about five minutes, she asked again to be let go.
She told the magistrate the men said they had ordered alcohol and would release her if she drank with them. “If I drink, will you let me go?” she said she asked. They said yes. She alleged that the three men then raped her.
She said she was later driven away, pushed out of the vehicle and left without her belongings, which included Rs200,000 and an iPhone 13 Pro Max. She alleged she was warned not to go to the police. She asked people nearby to help her call 15, and police arrived. The FIR alleges she was given a drink containing an intoxicating substance.
Separately, Additional Sessions Judge Riffaqat Ali granted interim pre-arrest bail until 5 October to a woman named in the case. She appeared with her lawyer, who said she had been implicated with mala fide intent, and that she wanted to join the investigation to prove her innocence. He said she feared arrest. The court barred police from arresting her, ordered her to join the inquiry before the next hearing, and told police to submit an investigation report.
The case is the second in four months in which a foreign woman has reportedly been gang-raped in the Defence C station area. In June, two women, nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela, were allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted there. According to the FIR, five suspects were involved, including a close relative of a senior political figure, and they demanded ransom while holding the women. A Lahore court later approved physical remand of four suspects in that case.
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