LAHORE (MNN); A judicial magistrate in Lahore on Monday granted Defence C police an additional four-day physical remand of four suspects, including a relative of a senior political figure, in the high-profile case concerning the alleged abduction and rape of two foreign women.
The suspects appeared before Judicial Magistrate Azhar Mehmood at the Cantonment Courts after completing their previous five-day remand. During the hearing, the investigating officer requested further custody, stating that additional time was required to complete the investigation.
The investigating officer informed the court that police had already recovered the mobile phones of the accused as well as the vehicle allegedly used during the commission of the crime. However, he added that the recovery of money allegedly connected to the case was still pending, making further interrogation necessary.
Advocate Salman Shahid represented three of the accused, while the principal suspect, who is reportedly related to a prominent political personality, appeared without legal counsel.
Opposing the request for an extended remand, the defence argued that investigators had failed to explain the progress made during the previous ten days of custody. Counsel maintained that the complainants had identified only four suspects, alleging that police were unnecessarily implicating additional individuals without sufficient evidence.
The defence further pointed out that no formal identification parade of the suspects had yet been conducted. It also argued that, under legal provisions governing such sensitive cases, the investigation should have been supervised by a female police officer. The lawyer requested the court to discharge his three clients from the case.
After hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defence, the judicial magistrate approved the investigating officer’s request and extended the physical remand of all four accused for another four days to facilitate further investigation.
In a related development, an additional district and sessions court dismissed the interim pre-arrest bail of the Station House Officer (SHO) of Defence C police due to his failure to appear before the court after the expiry of his interim relief.
The SHO is facing allegations of unlawfully entering the official residence of the judicial magistrate overseeing the case and allegedly threatening him.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the police officer entered the magistrate’s residence late at night without authorization and allegedly pressured him to speak with the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Operations over the phone.
Earlier this month, DIG Operations Faisal Kamran publicly apologised to the judiciary over the incident but defended the police action, arguing that failure to intervene could have raised questions about Pakistan’s legal system in the national and international media.
The DIG also stated that despite the prime suspect’s reported links to a senior government minister, police had been instructed to treat him like any other accused without discrimination.
During testimony recorded before the magistrate earlier this month, the two women, nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela, described an alleged ordeal spanning several days. They claimed they were abducted, subjected to physical and sexual abuse, and forced to pay a ransom amounting to millions of dollars.
The case has been registered under several serious provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code, including Section 375-A relating to rape and Section 365-A dealing with kidnapping for extortion. Police say the investigation is continuing and further evidence is being collected before submission of the final challan to the court.
