Motorway rape case main suspect Abid Malhi arrested
LAHORE: Police on Monday arrested the main suspect in the Lahore motorway rape case, Abid Malhi, from Faisalabad and brought him back to Lahore.
The other suspect who allegedly raped the woman, Shafqat, is in jail on judicial remand. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), Special Branch of the police and other agencies had done a recce of the suspect and tipped off Punjab Police about the whereabouts of Malhi before they went to Faisalabad to apprehend him.
Malhi’s DNA test had been obtained thrice from the motorway rape victim’s samples. However, his DNA test will be taken again and matched with the samples from the motorway rape victim’s before any formal proceedings against him are initiated.
The motorway rape case’s prime suspect had managed to evade arrest four times by escaping the clutches of the Punjab police ever since he has been on the run.
Speaking to Geo News, Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz Chohan said that the provincial government would do everything in its power to make an example out of the motorway rape suspect.
Talking about how the Punjab government aims to prosecute Malhi as he had managed to be secure a bail previously despite rape charges, he said:
Chohan said that without speaking to the motorway rape victim, the Punjab government had managed to identify the suspects within 72 hours.
“No shortcomings will take place from [the government’s side],” Chohan said of the case.
He said that Malhi had managed to escape the clutches of the police due to detailed media hype and reporting about him.
“Due to the media’s hype regarding the case, Malhi was able to receive reports about police looking for him and he managed to escaped police raids four to five times as he used to get information from his sources about the police,” said the information minister.
Chohan said that the Punjab police had “intentionally cooled down things” over the things and observed that Malhi had also relaxed over the past 10-12 days which ultimately led him to become less careful.
The minister said that to hide details of the investigation from the public at large, he used to “play down questions asked to me” about the motorway gang-rape case during press conferences.
The information minister stressed that if the prosecution, police, and the judicial system play their role in the right manner, then such people would not escape the law again.
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