Lahore police defend handling of case over two women’s custodial deaths at Township station

The Lahore police, on Tuesday, responded to their response in connection with a case in which two women died in Township Police Station, stating that judicial inquiry and interim postmortem results have not yet shown any signs of torture on the dead bodies and that the DNA reports are being awaited.

While addressing a press conference, CCPO Lahore Bilal Siddique Kamyana, DIG Operations Faisal Kamran, and DIG Investigations Zeeshan Raza assured that nothing in the case will be left out of investigation.

According to the police version of events, a complaint regarding an allegation of swindle was received on emergency helpline 15 at around 2:55 pm and the police arrived at the scene at 3:11 pm, with the complainant reaching there at around 4 pm.

An FIR against the two women was registered at 4:50 pm, followed by transferring of custody from the operations to investigation wing at around 5:20 pm.

The women were handed over to the investigation wing clerk at approximately 5:30pm.

The police said their condition began deteriorating around 15 minutes later, prompting officials to call Rescue 1122.

The police stated that the identification process was being delayed because the women didn't have CNICs. They were identified through their photographs and names by the Criminal Record Office (CRO).

The officials further added that two earlier cases had been found registered against these women at Dinga Police Station in Gujrat in 2023 and Lahore Factory Area in 2024.

Afterwards, they got a clue about a lady in Rawalpindi and this clue helped them in tracing the families of deceased women in Pakpattan.

It was stated that post-mortem had been delayed as the deceased didn't have their documents and their legal heirs hadn't been found at that time. Post-mortem was conducted when the families were available.

As the deaths of women had taken place after they were in custody of police, they sought inquiry under Section 176 of the Criminal Procedure Code from the magistrate.

The interim report of judicial magistrate indicated that final decision would be made based upon the post-mortem report.

The officials cleared some queries related to Ghaziabad Police Station, where Assistant Sub Inspector (ASI) was alleged to have assaulted a woman on August 2.