LODHRAN: Two men were sentenced to 14 years in prison after an anti-rape court in Punjab’s Lodhran district found them guilty of raping a speech and hearing impaired girl in 2020.
The court also ordered the convicts, identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Ijaz and 25-year-old Muhammad Shan, to pay fines of Rs1 million each.
The court also ordered the two to pay fines of Rs100,000 each to the victim.
Failing to pay either of the fines will increase their imprisonment by six months, the court said in the verdict.
The case stems from a first information report (FIR) registered at the Lodhran City police station in March 2021.
The FIR invoked Section 292C (Punishment for Child Pornography) and Section 376 (Punishment for Rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The victim’s father accused five individuals of their alleged involvement in the rape of his speech and hearing-impaired daughter in 2020.
The complainant stated that his 16-year-old daughter ran into the house one day with torn clothes and described her ordeal to her mother in sign language.
The victim told her mother that five men raped her multiple times on different occasions in a nearby field, and recorded it on camera.
The aggrieved father said that he initially maintained silence out of fear of social stigma; however, the suspects soon began blackmailing him with the video footage, showing the men raping his daughter.
His daughter identified all five of the culprits when the video was shown to her, he added.
The complainant requested a medical examination of his daughter while calling for swift action against the suspects.
