SC directs action against DSP for releasing culprits | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

SC directs action against DSP for releasing culprits

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar on Monday ordered for taking strict action against the deputy superintendent of police (DSP) for releasing the culprits involved in a gang rape case of a girl, a resident of Kahutta, and directed the police to submit a report before the court by Thursday.

A two-member bench of the Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar and Justice Ijazul Hassan heard a suo moto case of the gang rape. The chief justice had taken the suo moto notice on a news report appeared in a section of the press regarding the gang rape of a girl whose parents were being pressurised by the Kahutta police to come to terms with the accused namely Sajjad, Amjad and Aqiq.

It was reported that an FIR had been lodged at the Kahutta police station, but no one had been arrested. The chief justice had directed the SSP operation, Rawalpindi, to appear before the apex court within a week with the detailed report of the incident.

DIG Rawalpindi Rao Muhammad Iqbal on Monday appeared before the court and said that an FIR had been lodged against the accused under Section 109 and other sections. He informed the court that on November 6, three boys kidnapped a girl and kept her for 10 days in a room and raped her blind-folded.

Later, he said, the girl escaped from their clutches on November 16, and on the same day her father Muhammad Mushtaq filed an FIR at the Kahuta police station. He further informed that the medical report confirmed that the girl was raped while some other chemical examination reports were under way.

He told the court that after lodging the FIR, Kahutta SHO Zulfiqar arrested two

accused. However, later, DSP Habib Shah released the accu-sed after holding a local Jirga (Panchait) on November 17, he said.

On this, the chief justice asked that why the accused were released after an FIR had been lodged against them. “The police should remain impartial and their job is to arrest the culprits instead of releasing them,” the chief justice said.
Source: The News
Date:12/2/2008