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| India-Pakistan |
| Rape case: ''We lost the file'' |
| 2002-08-20 |
| Some officials of the Dera Ghazi Khan DIG's office have misplaced the evidentiary record in the Meerwala gang-rape case from the police file. Oh, really? Now who'da thunk that? The Pak coppers are usually so efficient... This was told to the anti-terrorism court by SP crimes Mirza Muhammad Abbas on Monday while deposing as defence witness. He said Dera DIG Asif Nawaz had ordered a probe into the matter and fixed responsibility on the negligent staff. Severe disciplinary action will be taken: "No TV for a week, young man!" The SP crimes was summoned by the court on Saturday last on the request of defence counsel Malik Saleem to bring with him the police file of the case. He said he was appointed by the Dera DIG to hold a probe on July 3, 2002, after the publication of news items regarding corruption, negligence and malpractice of the Jatoi police in the investigation of the gang-rape case. Dawn was on top of that little attempt to put the fix in... He said he visited the Muzaffargrh DSP's office on July 4 and recorded statements of Abdul Shakoor (the sodomy victim), Salma Mai, her mother Taj Mai, inspector Nazir Ahmad and ASI Iqbal on July 5. Statements of Ghulam Husain, Sabir Husain, Manzoor Husain and Ghulam Mustafa were recorded in his presence at the office of the Jatoi SDPO. But the statements of Mukhtaran Mai, her father Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Abdul Razzaq were recorded in his absence by inspector Riaz Husain through his reader. He said all the statements were verified by him. "Yup. Got all the statement right... uh... somewhere." The defence witness said when Mukhtaran Mai, Ghulam Farid and Maulvi Razzaq were called to verify their respective statements, they stated that the statements recorded by the inquiry officer were correct while those recorded by inspector Riaz had variations. Here defence counsel Malik Saleem, Yaqoob Khan and Yasser Khosa requested the witness to produce the original statements. The SP expressed his inability to do so saying some officials had misplaced the police record. Hmmm... Golly. Y'don't suppose the defense counsel might have known in advance that the statement had been "misplaced," do ya? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |