Motorway rape case: Suspect Abid Malhi confesses crime, reveals details of evading arrest for a month

(Karachi) The prime accused in Lahore Motorway rape incident, Abid Malhi, has confessed to sexually assaulting the woman during interrogation and revealed how he evaded police arrest for a month, media reported on Tuesday.

Suspect's confessions

As per details, Abid Malhi transpired that he and Shafqat robbed two to three truck drivers near Karol village on the Motorway, before they sexually assaulted the victim.

He told investigators that the car's flashing indicators caught his attention and upon seeing a woman inside, he asked her to come out of the vehicle. He added when the woman refused to come out of the car, he broke the vehicle's window and dragged her outside.

He maintained that after robbing the woman of her valuables, they told her to accompany them into the forested area but the woman refused to do so. Malhi disclosed that they took her children off the motorway and the woman followed to protect them.

He said when they went down, he and Shafqat took the victim into the bushes and gang-raped her. The suspect revealed that he and his accomplice fled when the Dolphin Police force arrived and fired shots into the air.

Evading arrest

During investigation, Abid told the police how he managed to hide from the law for almost a month. The accused said that during the time he was on the run, he travelled through various cities in Punjab by using public transport and wearing a mask over his face.

Malhi revealed that he fled to Nankana Sahib after allegedly raping the woman while his accomplice, Shafqat, escaped to Dialpur. He said later he escaped to Bahawalpur where he managed to evade the police and avoid recognition by wearing a mask over his face.

The suspect said in his confessional statement that he got arrested after he ran out of money and was forced to contact his wife.

Police nab Abid Malhi

On October 13, prime suspect in Motorway rape incident, Abid Malhi, was arrested from Faisalabad. Another suspect, Shafqat, was arrested earlier and is in jail on judicial remand after confessing to committing the crime.

The police shifted the accused to Lahore for taking his DNA test. As part of the operation, Malhi's wife was given a SIM which she used to call him.

Abid Malhi told his wife in one of his calls that he would meet her in Faisalabad. When the motorway rape suspect arrived in the city to meet her, he was arrested by police officials deputed on the spot in plain clothes.

Tragic incident

On September 9, the woman was allegedly gang raped during a robbery bid in Gujjarpura along the recently inaugurated Lahore-Sialkot Motorway.

Police said the victim was travelling with her children in a car when the vehicle stalled due to lack of petrol. She called a relative and sent him her location on the Motorway. When the relative arrived at the location, he saw the victim driving the car towards them with broken window panes.

The woman told police that she was waiting for the family to arrive to pick her and the children when two armed assailants allegedly attacked her.

One suspect hit the car with clubs and the other held them hostage at gunpoint. The attackers then took her and the children to a nearby forested area where the victim claims they gang raped her. Later on, they robbed her of valuables and left her stranded.

Accused Shafqat apprehended

After a few days of the tragic incident, Punjab police arrested one of the key suspects in Motorway rape case from Dipalpur.

Shafqat is a friend of prime suspect Abid and confessed his involvement in the motorway gang-rape case. Shafqat was apprehended on pointation of his friend Waqarul Hassan who was arrested soon after the rape incident.

Later, another accused, identified as Abbas, also surrendered to the police. Abbas was the brother-in-law of Waqar.

However, both Abbas and Waqar denied involvement in the case. After investigations, the police released both of them.