Two women allegedly sexually assaulted by the principal and owner of a private school on the pretext of providing them a job recounted their ordeal to a judicial magistrate here on Tuesday.
Last week, the Steel Town police arrested Irfan Memon after videos purportedly depicting him assaulting several women emerged on social media. He was subsequently booked on charges of sexual assault, insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment, and criminal intimidation.
Two of the alleged victims recorded their statements before Judicial Magistrate-II (Malir) Ramsha Navaid under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). One of the women reportedly told the magistrate that she had gone to the principal to seek a job three months back. She recounted that he instructed her to come after school hours for a job interview, and when she went there, he closed his office’s doors and threatened her not to make noise, subjecting her to sexual abuse.
The woman said the suspect told her that her job would start next Saturday and promised a Rs50,000 salary. During her next visit on Saturday, she relayed he once again subjected her to abuse, and upon her resistance, he physically assaulted her and told her that CCTV cameras were installed in his office, threatening to share her videos and photos on the interent. She didn’t disclose her ordeal out of fear, she added.
The other woman said that when she came to know about the arrest of Irfan through social media, she went to the police station to record her statement. She said the suspect had promised her job but never gave one, adding that during her first visit, he gave her Rs5,000 and shot her video and called her three to four times to his office.
Meanwhile, the investigation officer, Ali Asghar Abro, produced the suspect before the judicial magistrate on the completion of his seven-day police remand and requested an extension in his remand for further interrogation. He said the suspect had been booked in another case after the recovery of drugs during a raid on his residence, adding that he was required to be questioned about the drugs and completion of the probe into the sexual abuse scandal.
The first FIR against the suspect was lodged under sections 376 (punishment for rape), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 509 (insulting modesty or causing sexual harassment) of the Pakistan Penal Code, and Section 25 of the Telegraph Act at the Steel Town police station on behalf of the state through ASI Aftab Hussain. The complainant said that he was on patrol duty with his subordinates when he learnt about videos circulating on social media. The video showed a man subjecting different women to sexual abuse, he said. He added that the suspect, who was later identified as Irfan, owner of a private school in Gulshan-e-Hadeed, was taken into custody.