MULTAN, May 18: The local police have declared that no official of the law enforcement agency is involved in the gang-rape of two street singers while the victims still insist that some of the perpetrators were in police uniform and the place where they were assaulted was none other than the police station.

Speaking at a press conference here on Tuesday, Multan DPO Hamid Mukhtar Gondal identified that the 'culprits' as Rana Sohail and Shahid Ashraf. The DPO said that both the accused were residents of Block Y, New Multan. "Rana Sohail is the director of a pesticides firm while his accomplice is an insurance agent."

The district police chief claimed that only the two arrested accused were found involved in the gang-rape in the preliminary investigation. "No policeman is involved in the crime," he declared, adding "however the media coverage of the incident has caused a great damage to the prestige and honour of the force".

He said the police were "custodian of the people's honour and the outcome of the gang-rape case had once again made the police honourable in the public eye."

Giving details of the police investigation, the DPO said that 'S' and 'T' were returning on a motorcycle rickshaw from a wedding performance in Sameejabad colony early Friday last when Rana Sohail and Shahid intercepted them and introduced themselves as policemen.

They forcibly bundled the women in their car bearing a fake number plate of MNO-6375. Later on, they took them to the office of 'Rehman Agro' situated behind the New Multan police station and raped them.

The DPO claimed that 'misconception' in the victims' mind was perhaps created by the fact that they were tortured and raped in the police station due to the signboards of New Multan police station affixed a few yards away from the office of Rehman Agro.

About the statement of victim 'S' that police uniforms were hanging on a wall of the room where she was subjected to rape, the Multan police chief said that were the uniforms of the security guards of the pesticides firm.

The DPO claimed that about a dozen people had witnessed the two men kidnapping the women in a small Suzuki car.

He said some of the witnesses were sitting with the victims in the same rickshaw while others were chasing them on motorbikes but when accused Sohail and Shahid intercepted the rickshaw, they all fled 'assuming' them (the accused) as policemen. (It is interesting that about a dozen people assumed the accused as policemen though they were in civvies in white Suzuki car).

The police also presented the hooded accused before the newsmen. Initially, they repeated the police version of the incident while confessing to their crime. They said only they were involved in the crime.

However, after a short while they started giving contradictory statements. For instance, they said they kidnapped the women at 1am while, according to both victims and the police, the kidnapping took place at about 3.15am.

Similarly, they could not give right answers of the questions about height and physique of the victims. To a question, the DPO admitted that identification of the accused from the victims had yet to be verified. ASP (sadar) Sikandar Hayat said that the victims were not cooperating with the investigators.

The DPO also ruled out identification parade of New Multan PS staff. The victims, in their statements, had identified two of the rapists as Ilyas and Zafar. "When four men in uniform had assaulted us, they called Ilyas and Zafar by name who then joined the crime."

Meawhile, victims 'S' and 'T' recorded their statements before magistrate Tahir Aslam under section 164 CrPC on Tuesday. Talking to newsmen outside the courtroom, the women reiterated their statement that they were kidnapped in a police mobile and that they were criminally assaulted by six men. They said four of the perpetrators were in police uniform.