Lahore police report clears five suspects of rape in foreign women case

An incomplete police report filed in a Lahore trial court over the alleged gang rape of two foreign women in July has cleared five suspects of sexual assault, while implicating them in other offences including illegal detention and extortion, Dawn reported.

The five include one suspect reportedly linked to a senior minister. The police charged three other suspects, described as low-paid employees of one of the key suspects, with sexually assaulting the women. The report was submitted as an incomplete “challan”, meaning the police said they filed it to avoid delay while some forensic results are still pending.

What the police say happened

Defence C police registered the first information report in July under sections of the Pakistan Penal Code covering kidnapping for extortion, rape, causing disappearance of evidence, wrongful confinement and causing hurt. According to the investigation report:

• The two complainants said they met one of the three prime suspects in Singapore in 2025 and invited him to invest in their cryptocurrency business. After receiving returns on a first investment, he put in a further $500,000, and the women did not pay him profits or return the money.
• In June he invited them to Pakistan on the pretext of a meeting with another investor. They stayed in an Islamabad hotel and travelled to Murree and other areas.
• He later told an associate the women owed him money, and the associate involved another prime suspect, identified as “boss”.
• On June 29 the women were taken to a house in Defence Phase VII, Lahore, where they were allegedly detained and pressured to pay. They were made to transfer about $19,500, converted into rupees through a Lahore-based account; Rs1.1 million each reportedly went to two of the suspects.
• The women alleged that armed men guarded the house and threatened them with a knife, a gun and a piece of broken mirror, and warned they would be killed and their body parts sold if they did not pay.
• They escaped on July 1, when a car taking them to the airport was involved in an accident near Bhatta Chowk. They raised an alarm, and the relative of the senior political figure fled, while police took the women into protection.

Evidence and charges

Police said they recovered Rs4.3 million allegedly extorted from the women, along with a mobile phone, a vehicle, pistols and a rifle, leading to separate cases under the Arms Ordinance. One suspect is accused of renting the house to the group without informing the authorities, and another of helping destroy evidence, so sections 368 and 201 were added.

The report says medical examinations were done, and the women’s statements were recorded before a magistrate under Section 164. DNA, fingerprint and polygraph tests were conducted and call records obtained, but the Punjab Forensic Science Agency’s reports are awaited. Police said they filed the incomplete report despite having “sufficient evidence” against the suspects, and asked the court to summon them by notice.

The defence and the court

Additional District and Sessions Judge Rafaqat Ali Gondal has had copies of the report given to the suspects and set the next hearing for November 11. Advocate Salman Shahid, who represents two of the three suspects charged with sexual assault, accused the police of favouring the key suspects. He said his clients were low-paid employees of one of them, and that one was a member of the janitorial staff at the property, and called them scapegoats.

In July, Lahore DIG Operations Faisal Kamran said police had been ordered to treat the suspect reportedly linked to a senior government minister “like any other criminal”, and promised no legal loophole would be left for any suspect.

What we know, and what we don’t

• Known: the report charges three suspects with sexual assault and the other five with offences such as detention and extortion.
• Known: the report is incomplete; forensic results are pending and the allegations have not been tested at trial.
• Unknown: whether the forensic reports will change the charges, and who the court will summon.
• Unknown: the response of the five suspects cleared of the sexual assault charge, which the report does not give.

Why it matters

A challan that treats the accused differently, and that is still incomplete, will be tested closely in court. The complainants’ account describes a business dispute that turned into captivity, and it is the court, not the police report, that will decide which charges stand. The next hearing, on November 11, will show whether the prosecution can complete its evidence. For Punjab police more broadly, see our report on Maryam Nawaz letting the IGP transfer 15 DPOs and four RPOs over poor performance, mainly on crimes against women.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn.