Police refute reports of Korangi factory employee’s gang rape

Police and family members of a woman who was found dead in a ground in Korangi a week ago have termed stories being circulated on social media about her gang rape “fake news”.

Some social media reports claimed that the woman was an employee of a denim manufacturer company, Artistic Milliners, in Korangi Industrial Area and she was drugged and raped in the office by 20 to 22 men the whole night before she was killed. However, the company and police have refuted such reports, saying that they were cooked up for blackmailing.

The family of the woman has refused to allow the exhumation of her body for an autopsy after stories about the alleged rape circulated on social media. “The woman was found dead in the Karim Ground of the Korangi area on September 1,” said Korangi SDPO Arshad Leghari, who has also been appointed an inquiry officer of the case.

The body was kept at the Chhipa morgue before it was handed over to the family, who buried the deceased on September 4. “No postmortem was conducted as no physical mark of torture were found on her body and no one even from her family had claimed any torture or rape at the time when her body was found and when she was being buried,” DSP Leghari said, adding that the woman was a drug addict and she apparently died of an overdose. He said the woman lived near the Karim Ground within the limits of the Zaman Town police station.

DSP Leghari said police had so far found no evidence that suggested that the woman was raped. He added that the fake story was cooked up and circulated by so-called journalists for the purpose of blackmailing.

Company’s version

After the Artistic Milliners was named in the rape story, the company issued a statement refuting the reports that a gang rape had occurred on its premises. It said some unscrupulous elements wanted to extort money from the company through blackmailing, and the Federal Investigation Agency had initiated investigations in this regard.

The company stated that the Sindh labour East division directorate general and the Korangi SSP had inquired into the allegation and found not an iota of evidence that could corroborate any gang rape. The statement read that the company was committed to ensuring the safety of its workforce on its premises and followed international standards of workplace safety.

Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI) President Muhammad Salman Aslam also expressed concern over the circulation of unverified reports, and wrote a letter to police. “We reiterate that Artistic Milliners (Pvt) limited is a very old and valued member of KATI. It is one of the largest exporters of Pakistan earning precious foreign exchange for Pakistan and enjoying an excellent repute among industries,” the letter read.

The association demanded action against those who concocted the story. District Korangi SSP Faisal Bashir Memon responded to the KATI letter, in which he stated that no evidence of gang rape allegations levelled by a web channel, Dhoom Plus, was found.

He wrote in the letter that a journalist Sagir Buledi, member of the Sindh Sajagi Labour Federation, was operating the Dhoom Plus channel on Facebook, on which he uploaded the fake story.