Son of late parliamentarian among Clifton gang rape suspects

KARACHI: Mystery has deepened over the kidnapping and subsequent gang rape incident in the upscale Clifton neighbourhood as the police are now ruling out the abduction and group action in the light of some new evidence that “refutes force and coercion factor and appear to be something else.” On the contrary, the law enforcement officers claim that they have established the identities of the alleged rapists and raided to arrest them from a Defence Housing Authority apartment, but found none of them.

After the identification of the suspects and recording of the statement of the young working woman, the police raided an apartment on the third floor of the residential apartment in Khayaban-e-Nishat in DHA, but returned emptyhanded. The police also raided the houses of the suspects’ relatives but could not get hold of the suspects.

The police investigators have obtained multiple CCTV footages, which establish facts contrary to the young woman’s statement. In one of the CCTV footages shown to The News, the woman is not seen to be thrown out of the SUV and was seen coming out of the vehicle along with a shopping bag. The video also showed her to be calm and she quickly walked away from the area.

DIG South Zone police Javed Akbar Riaz told The News, “It does not look like rape and kidnapping but it appears to be some other issue but nothing concrete could be established until and unless the investigation completes. The investigators did not find any evidence or witness to suggest that the woman offered resistance during the entire episode.” The police also questioned the watchman of the apartment where she was taken on Monday night and he also did not recall witnessing the young woman resisting at any point of time.

The police also claim to have identified the suspects and one of whom belongs to Jacobabad and happens to be the son of a late parliamentarian. The investigators have also obtained the cell phone call record of the woman and the suspects, which suggested that they were briefly in contact with each other. “The CDR shows their brief call history,” DIG Riaz explained, but said in the same vein that the “suspects will be arrested soon.” The police investigators also cite the “initial medical examination” which suggests no sign of torture or injury on the woman’s body. Despite the preliminary investigations, medical reports and the phone data, none of which is conclusive or fully established at this point of time, there are too many ifs and buts that need to be answered, a senior police source said while warning against rushing to a hasty conclusion.

Earlier, it was reported that the 22-year-old young working woman and her family had claimed that she was kidnapped and later gang-raped at Karachi’s Clifton neighbourhood on Monday night. It was claimed that she had gone out for snacks to a mall with a friend. Afterwards, two men in a double cabin vehicle kidnapped her from outside the mall. They took her to an apartment where along with their third accomplice they raped her. Initially, it was reported in the media that the young woman was found unconscious on Tuesday morning after being subjected to repeated rape following abduction on Monday night.

The police, however, said that she was picked up at around 9:30pm on Monday night and then dropped at around 11:30pm the same night. An FIR was registered at the Boat Basin police station.