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A judicial magistrate in Lahore on Monday handed over three more suspects to police on a five-day physical remand in the case of the alleged abduction and sexual assault of two foreign women in the city's Defence area. The three suspects, described as private security guards and servants of the prime suspects, were produced before the magistrate at the Cantonment Courts.
Coverage comparison
Dawn reported that the three suspects were produced before the magistrate on Monday, and that police had earlier said all eight suspects nominated in the case, including two high-profile individuals, had been arrested. A day earlier, police investigating the case told Dawn that all eight suspects had been arrested. The two foreign nationals departed Pakistan on July 3 after recovery.
Earlier, a court had granted police a five-day physical remand of four suspects arrested for the alleged abduction and sexual assault. The victims are nationals of the Netherlands and Venezuela. According to the FIR, the suspects demanded $1.5 million in ransom before sexually assaulting the foreigners.
Key claims
Police were granted a five-day physical remand of the three suspects after a public prosecutor asked for 14 days. The prosecutor said weapons allegedly used in the offence were yet to be recovered and that medical tests were required to determine the ages of the suspects. The magistrate asked the suspects if they wished to make a statement; they declined, and stated they had no legal counsel.
Lahore DIG Operations Kamran Faisal, at a press conference on Sunday, confirmed the involvement of a relative of a government minister and vowed that police would pursue the investigation without fear or favor. He said the police received strict orders from the government to treat the high-profile individual no differently than any other criminal. He also shared details of the raids conducted in Sargodha and other locations, which led to the recovery of the women and the arrest of several suspects.
According to Dawn, the suspects in the case included a relative of a senior political personality. The 'big boss' suspect was arrested in an injured condition after jumping off the second floor of a villa during a raid. The prime suspect had met one of the victim girls at a conference in Singapore in 2025 and decided to run a cryptocurrency business together.
In a separate development, a sessions court granted pre-arrest bail to a station house officer (SHO) over a case registered against him for allegedly barging into the official residence of a judicial magistrate to get the statements of the two foreign nationals recorded.