The Supreme Court on Monday directed an investigating team, constituted to probe the death of 18-year-old rape victim Amina to submit a comprehensive report on the incident within ten days. Amina doused her clothes with petrol and set herself on fire outside the police station in the presence of her younger brother in Muzaffargarh on 13 March.
Passers-by and police took her to Jatoi Civil Hospital and she was later shifted to Nishtar Hospital in Multan because of her critical condition. With 80% of burn the girl succumbed to her injuries on March 14. A three-member judge headed by Chief Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani resumed the hearing of a suo motu case regarding the self-immolation of a rape victim in Bet Mir Hazar area of Muzaffargarh in protest against a police report which helped her alleged rapist obtain bail from the local court.
The court remarked that the incident was a result of police negligence as the police could have saved the rape victim but they did not do so. The court observed that the girl committed self-immolation due to the local police's behaviour and a lack of justice on judiciary's part. During the course of proceedings, the IG Punjab submitted a preliminary report of the incident and told the court that a committee has been constituted to probe the incident.
The court ordered that the committee should comprise at least three members led by Additional Inspector General Khalid Daad. The IG Punjab told the court that five individuals have given evidence relating to the Muzaffargarh rape while a case has been registered against the SHO for negligence. The preliminary report said that there was a financial dispute between the victim's father and the main accused in the rape and added that the suspect was earlier married to the victim's elder sister. According to the victim's elder sister, the dispute between her parents and the suspect rose over the issue of sale of livestock, the report further said.
The report quoted her as saying that the parents had filed a false case against the suspect. CJP Jillani questioned IG Punjab whether a separate case was filed over the self-immolation incident and could a policeman have stopped Amina from committing self-immolation outside the station?
The IG replied that two cases had been registered with respect to the incident - one on March 13 and the other on March 17. He added that the SHO of the relevant police station had also been nominated in the second case. Police stations across the country are meant to have firefighting equipment and the lack of such equipment in the particular police station was another act of incompetence on the police's part, Justice Khilji Arif observed. The court adjourned the hearing of case till March 26.
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