Lahore police granted 3-day physical remand of woman in connection with Azeri national's rape case

AI Summary

A Lahore magistrate granted police a three-day physical remand of a woman suspect in the alleged gang rape of a 20-year-old Azerbaijani business traveler. Two male suspects are also in custody, and police say they are searching for a third; the report notes another alleged assault involving foreign women in the same area earlier this year.

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday granted police a three-day physical remand of a woman in connection with a case of an Azeri woman’s rape. The 20-year-old Azerbaijan national had travelled to Pakistan for business purposes and was allegedly gang-raped by three men in a rented flat of a private housing society located near Raiwind on the night between Sept 25 and Sept 26. In her statement, the complainant had named two women with whom she had met before the men accused of raping her joined them. Two of those men had been arrested and were sent on a six-day physical remand on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the woman suspect was produced before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mahmood at the Cantonment Courts under strict security. A prosecutor informed the court that it would be her first physical remand and argued that being a woman, she could be kept in jail during her physical remand. A counsel for the suspect, however, contended that her relationship with the complainant was limited to friendship. He argued that physical remand of a woman could not be sought except in offences of murder or robbery. The counsel further submitted that nothing was required to be recovered from the suspect. The magistrate asked the suspect whether she wanted to undergo a medical examination. “No, I do not want to undergo a medical examination,” she replied. The magistrate then allowed a three-day physical remand of the suspect to the police. The magistrate directed that the woman suspect would remain in police custody from sunrise to sunset and, for rest, would remain in jail in judicial custody. Second such case in last 4 months The Defence C police had registered a case against three unidentified suspects on September 26 on the survivor’s complaint. One of the prime suspects had been arrested on Monday, while another’s arrest surfaced on Tuesday. According to Lahore Deputy Inspector General (Investigation) Zeeshan Raza, police had identified the third suspect and were conducting raids to trace him. On Tuesday, the two arrested men were sent on a six-day physical remand by a judicial magistrate. It is the second such case in which a foreign woman was reportedly gang-raped in the Defence C police station area during the last four months. In June, two foreign women, nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela, were allegedly abducted and sexually assaulted in the Defence C police station area. According to the FIR, the women were abducted by five suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, who demanded ransom and subjected them to sexual assault during their captivity.