IG Punjab rejects claim of identifying culprit involved in Lahore rickshaw harassment incident

• IG Punjab Inam Ghani police identified person who had shot video.
• Chohan had earlier claimed police had identified man involved in the harassment.
• A man had sexually harassed a woman who was aboard a Qingqi rickshaw.

The police are yet to identify the man involved in harassing the woman who was aboard a Qingqi rickshaw in Lahore, Punjab's top cop said Tuesday, rejecting the provincial government spokesperson Fayazzul Hasan Chohan's claims.

"We have identified the person who has shot the video, not the harasser," Inspector-General Punjab Inam Ghani said while speaking during Geo News programme "Capital Talk".

Punjab police on Sunday had arrested the man who filmed the viral video of a woman being sexually harassed while sitting on a Qingqi rickshaw, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Communication, Dr Shahbaz Gill had said.

Chohan's claim

Three days back, Chohan had said he had spoken to IG Punjab Inam Ghani, who had briefed him on the matter. Quoting Ghani, he said that a special team had been set up for the case — which will use all available modern, scientific methods to identify the criminals.

"In a day or two, we will trace them, and later on, will also make arrests," the spokesperson had said while speaking to Geo News.

Chohan had said he could not confirm whether the criminal involved had been arrested, however, he assured the nation that the man has been identified using CCTV cameras.

The incident

A few days back, a video showing a Pakistani man sexually harassing a woman went viral on social media, sparking outrage from different echelons of society.

Two women, with a child seated between them at the back of a Qingqi rickshaw somewhere in a busy street in Lahore, could be seen in the video clip. The women were seen to be visibly disturbed at the sight of a couple of motorcyclists hounding the rickshaw, catcalling, and leering at them.

As the video shows, one man jumped onto the rickshaw, out of nowhere, and forcibly kissed the woman. Startled, she and the woman beside her screamed, but no one intervened.

One of the women took her slipper off and threatened to hit a motorcyclist with it. The woman who was harassed, at one point, was extremely upset and tried to leave the rickshaw in despair but was stopped from doing so by her companion.  

FIR

After the video went viral on social media, a case was registered at the Lari Adda police station on the station house officer's (SHO) complaint, after police were shown a video of the incident.

The FIR estimates 10-12 "morally unrestrained" men on board motorcycles to have harassed two women sitting on board a Qingqi rickshaw, with a child seated in between them.

The case has been registered under Sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 511 (punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or for a shorter term), 294 (obscene acts and songs), 509 (ii) (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 147 (punishment for rioting), and 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of an offence committed in prosecution of common object) of the Pakistan Penal Code.