Rapists gave Karachi woman 'influential' person's contact for job after assault

KARACHI: One of the three men allegedly involved in kidnapping and gang-raping a 22-year-old woman last night gave her an "influential" person's phone number to contact if she needed a job, police said Wednesday, while quoting the victim's statement.

According to a senior police officer, the woman said the alleged rapist, while dropping her back, gave her a mobile phone number, offering her to hire her for Rs30,000 if she needed employment.

Police said Wednesday an investigation into the mobile number in question has been completed and that the contact is of "an influential person". However, the probe revealed it was not used at the crime scene.

The day-to-day activities of the said influential person were also checked but no evidence was found of the man's involvement in the incident, authorities added, noting that the data of his children was also being vetted.

Police say one suspect identified

In addition, police carried out a raid last night at a flat in Clifton after the victim indicated that it may be connected to the crime. However, none of the suspects involved could be arrested, they said, adding that the residents in the nearby apartments were also being questioned.

So far, one of the three suspects involved in the alleged gang-rape incident has been identified based on the information provided by the woman.

A day prior, three men in a black Toyota Vigo had abducted the young woman around 9:30pm as she waited for a bus to go home in the city's upscale Clifton area. Two of them repeatedly gang-raped her while the third facilitated the abuse.

Found semi-conscious

Police came to know about the incident after the woman's sister narrated the ordeal to Helpline 15 on Tuesday afternoon. They have recorded her statement and initiated further investigations. 

The woman told police last night that she was taken to a flat where the suspects subjected her to sexual violence, following which they left her in a semi-conscious state at the same spot from where they kidnapped her.

"The men in a black Vigo took me to the third floor of a building and raped me after picking me from near the Abdullah Shah Ghazi's shrine," a senior police officer said, while quoting the survivor. "They then dropped me outside the mall in Clifton."

Read more: Two men allegedly kidnap, gang rape 22-year-old woman in Karachi

She filed a report a day after the incident and was sent to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where initial reports confirmed the assault.

A first information report (FIR) was lodged against the three accused, two of whom gang-raped her and the third facilitated them, police said. A DNA test of the woman was conducted, police said, adding that she and her family do not to be named.

"The woman has identified influential suspects [...] They will be caught soon," police had said.

'Trying to obtain CCTV footage'

The police chief for South Zone, Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) Javed Akbar Riaz, told The News that the authorities "have identified the suspects".

"We are working on the victim’s version. We have deployed our resources to arrest the suspects and to pursue the investigation on merit,” Riaz said, adding that women officers were attached to the case due to its sensitivity.

The assistant superintendent of police (ASP) at the Clifton station, Zahida Perveen, said Karachi's authorities were "also trying to obtain the CCTV footage from both the spots — from where she was picked and dropped".