By: Farzana Ali Khan
PESHAWAR: The arrest of the three accused officials and two others speaks volumes about the provincial government’s serious interest in the case of Uzma Ayub, a teenage pregnant rape victim from Karak.
In an interview with The News, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Home Secretary Azam Khan said a new investigation team headed by Superintendent of Police (SP) Attiqullah Khan has been formed to complete the investigation and submit a final challan to the relevant authorities after removing the lacunas mentioned in the earlier report. “Though the inquiry report was in favour of the victim to a great extent, still we felt the need for further investigation due to some contradictory statements of the accused persons as well as the victim’s father,” he said.
Explaining the report, the home secretary said the role of victim’s father needed to be further investigated as paras 12 and 13 of the report state that 15 days before of the incident the father of the victim had submitted an application to the relevant authorities about the abduction of his son Alamzeb and theft of the valuables from his house by the accused.
Azam Khan said the most important point of the report was that the police investigators in order to discredit the accused Alamzeb stated that he was a proclaimed offender in the case (FIR#238 u/s 324/34 PPC). It was further stated that the accused has a history of crimes and they presented different cases against Alamzeb but from the record it transpired that Alamzeb was never declared a proclaimed offender in real sense of the term. Rather no proceedings under CrPC were ever initiated in this regard against him.
He further said that the biased role of the local police and prosecution authorities in the whole issue became more visible from different facts like the named persons were charged with a cognisable offence, for which police was bound to register a case as per Section 154 of the CrPC but the police did not do so initially and were forced to register a case only when the court ordered.
The news about Uzma’s escape from the kidnapper’s captivity was published on October 5 and Chief Minister Ameer Haider Hoti had ordered setting up of a committee the next day to probe the alleged kidnapping and rape case. The committee, headed by Home Secretary Azam Khan and comprising Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police (Investigation) Nisar Khan Tanoli and Kohat Commissioner Sahibzada Mohammad Anis, was supposed to submit the report within a week but it was released on October 26, taking about 20 days. The home secretary said that the process of investigation would be completed in the shortest possible time and the final report would be released soon.
The News also learnt that the accused persons were supposed to appear before the court on November 29 but upon their request the court was adjourned till December 2.
Source: THE NEWS
