Court extends interim pre-arrest bail of a female suspect in Azeri woman rape case

LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday extended the interim pre-arrest bail of a female suspect in the alleged gang-rape case of an Azeri woman.

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 near Raiwind on the night between September 25 and Sept 26.

The suspect appeared before the court on Monday at the expiry of her bail period. The woman, one of the two female suspects accused of facilitating the alleged act, had secured pre-arrest bail till October 5 on Sept 29.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Rafaqat Ali extended the pre-arrest bail of the woman until Oct 13.

The court asked whether the investigation was complete, to which a police official said the police needed more time.

Police have apprehended two of the three men, who were sent on a six-day physical remand last week.

In her statement, the complainant had named two women with whom she had met before the men accused of raping her gathered at an apartment. The other woman was sent on a three-day physical remand last week; however, on Saturday, at the end of her physical remand, the court sent her on judicial remand for 14 days till Oct 17.

Survivor’s statement

The Defence C police had registered a first information report (FIR) against three unidentified suspects on Sept 26 on the Azeri woman’s complaint.

In her statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the survivor said she had arrived in Islamabad from Istanbul on Sept 13 and stayed in Faisalabad for five days before travelling to Lahore.

“I had a plan to visit Skardu, but I could not go there because I was alone,” she said.

According to her, on the day of the alleged incident, she messaged two women, asking them to meet her in Lahore.

At around 11pm, she went to a cafe where she met one of them — the woman sent on judicial remand — and later accompanied her to a house in Bahria Town to meet the other, who secured pre-arrest bail on Monday.

The complainant told the magistrate that at around 2am, a white car arrived carrying two men, one of whom was sent on remand last week (first suspect).

Later, they moved to an apartment where two more men arrived, one of whom was the second person sent on remand (second suspect), while she did not know the name of the other man.

According to the complainant, in a separate room, the woman on bail took between Rs20,000 and Rs30,000 from the first suspect, saying the money was for a party, while the woman on judicial remand also joined them.

The Azeri woman said she made it clear that she “did not need money or alcohol”. She alleged that the first suspect tried to touch her and locked her in a separate room.

When she asked about her friends, she was told that they had left. When she tried to leave, the complainant said she was told that she could not go because her friends had taken money.

The victim said she offered to pay the men, but they told her that she would have to drink alcohol with them before they would let her go.

She alleged that the three men raped her.

She further stated that the suspects then put her in a car and threw her out at an unknown location, while threatening her with dire consequences if she approached the police.

According to her statement, the suspects also took her handbag containing Rs200,000, an iPhone 13 Pro Max and another mobile phone.

She then requested some people present there to help her call the police emergency number 15, following which the police arrived.

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.