MUZAFFARGARH: Police on Friday added murder section to the case of alleged abduction of a 17-year-old girl at Mauza Fatehpur Junoobi in Jatoi tehsil, after her body was recovered from the river Indus by the Rescue 1122 divers and her suspected “abductor” was arrested.

According to the police, suspect Saddam Gopang told the investigators that he had an affair with the girl, Farzana (17), of Jatoi, and they wanted to marry each other, but their families were opposed to the idea.

He claimed that he did not abducted the girl, as was alleged in the FIR, but she had eloped with him, adding that after elopement they tried to cross the river Indus with the help of a wooden plank. However, during their bid to cross the river, the girl drowned, but he somehow managed to swim back to the bank, the suspect claimed.

As per the FIR lodged by Munir Hussain, Farzana’s father, on Thursday (July 6), he was asleep at his house at Mouza Fatehpur Junoobi, when the suspect, Saddam, barged in with his accomplices, abducted his daughter and also took away gold jewellery along.

Suspect claims she drowned in their bid to cross river

The complainant also apprehended that the suspect had murdered the girl after raping her and threw her body into the river.

However, the police only registered a kidnapping case, as search was on for the girl (or her body in case she had been actually murdered).

On the complaint of the girl’s family, the Rescue 1122 divers launched a search for the girl.

Meanwhile, on Friday the police arrested the suspect who narrated a different story.

However, after the girl’s body was retrieved from the river, the police added murder section, 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC), to the FIR.

According to local sources, it was a case of elopement, but the girl’s parents lodged an abduction FIR to pressurise the suspect’s family and get her back.

Police were awaiting the girl’s autopsy report to proceed further in the case.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2023