Motorway rape case culprits handed death sentence

An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) in Lahore has handed two culprits in the motorway rape case – Abid Malhi and Shafqat Bagga – a death sentence. They have also been sentenced to prison for life and slapped a fine of Rs 50,000 each.

According to reports, the two have been sentenced to death for gang-raping a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway in September 2020. The court, which had earlier reserved the verdict, announced it today at Lahore’s Camp Jail, where the trial took place.

This is the first time that convicts in a gang-rape case have been handed death sentences.

The court has also ordered to confiscate the two convicts’ properties.

THE INCIDENT

A woman, along with her three children, was driving to Gujranwala in her car when she was forced to stop at the Gujjarpura section of the Lahore-Sialkot motorway after running out of fuel at around 1:30 am in September 2020.

She immediately called a relative and sent him her location. He asked her to also dial the Motorway Police helpline 130 but she was reportedly refused help.

In the meantime, two robbers approached the car, broke the window and took the woman and her children to nearby bushes where they raped her repeatedly in front of the children. They also snatched her purse that had cash around Rs100,000, one bracelet, car registration and three ATM cards.

Read more – ‘We took her kids to the bushes to make her follow us,’ says man who gang-raped mother of three

The Gujjarpura police have registered a case, while Motorway Police spokesperson said they had not been able to take action as the incident did not occur in the limits of Motorway Police.

The case had sparked outrage and protests across the country following which the government formulated the Anti-Rape Ordinance 2020, under which special courts will be set up across the country to expedite trials of rape cases on a priority basis and award harsher sentences, such as chemical castration.