Two women in Bahawalnagar have been booked for allegedly putting forward a rape allegation that was later withdrawn, and for trying to extort money from the man named in it. B-Division police registered the FIR on 11 October after Sub-Inspector Shahnaz Akhtar complained that misleading the police and the court was an offence under the Anti-Rape Act, 2021, the law that sets how rape cases are investigated and tried. Police say the women are in hiding and that raids are being conducted to arrest them.
What the October complaint alleges
The FIR says Sh, from Bonga Machhi, had the first case lodged at the B-Division police station on 23 January 2025. That case alleged that Z, from Basti Sadar Din, had abducted Sh's cousin A and sexually assaulted her. The October complaint accuses the two women of lodging a false case and then withdrawing it in an attempt to extort money from Z.
What A told the magistrate
Seven days after that first case, on 30 January 2025, A appeared before Judicial Magistrate Bilal Hassan. She recorded a statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the clause that allows a magistrate to write down what a person says. A said she had not been abducted or sexually assaulted. She said the case had been registered because of a misunderstanding.
The FIR says the first case was dismissed because of that statement. Akhtar's new complaint still treats the episode as an attempt to extort money from Z, rather than leaving it as the misunderstanding A described. What the record shows is a dismissed January case and a new FIR, with police still searching for the two women.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 23 January 2025: Sh had a case lodged at B-Division police station alleging that Z abducted and sexually assaulted her cousin A.
- 30 January 2025: A told Judicial Magistrate Bilal Hassan she had not been abducted or assaulted and that the case was a misunderstanding. The FIR says the case was dismissed in light of that statement.
- 11 October: Police registered a new FIR on Sub-Inspector Shahnaz Akhtar's complaint, accusing the two women under the Anti-Rape Act of a false case and extortion, and said both were in hiding with raids under way.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Bahawalnagar mein police ne do khawateen ke khilaf naya case darj kiya hai. Police ka kehna hai ke unhon ne ek aadmi par rape ka jhoota ilzam lagaya aur us se paise nikalne ki koshish ki. Pehle case mein larki ne magistrate ko bataya ke us ke saath ziyadti nahi hui, is liye woh case band ho gaya. Ab dono khawateen chhupi hui hain aur police unhein dhoondh rahi hai.
