Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Investigators in Pakistan probing the alleged kidnapping and gangrape of two foreign women are now pursuing a new angle, with focus now turning onto the possibility of a cryptocurrency-related dispute being at the centre of the high-profile case, which involves a relative of Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar’s as one of the accused.
The development surfaced after one of the survivors recorded her statement before a judicial magistrate as part of the ongoing investigation. She claimed that Muhammad Raza Dar, who is the prime suspect in the case, received a payment of USD 100,000 in exchange for her release.
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He is reportedly the grandson of Deputy PM Dar. According to a copy of the testimony obtained by Pakistan-based ARY News, the woman told the magistrate that armed men stormed the house where she and her friend were staying.
According to the statement, the duo were allegedly restrained and confined in a room by the attackers before Raza Dar began demanding access to a computer and cryptocurrency funds.
“They asked where the computer with the money was, and I told them it was in the green bag,” ARY News quoted the woman as saying in her statement.
The survivor alleged that she was hit on the head while in captivity, adding that one of the armed men threatened her and her friend that they would be killed if they failed to hand over the money.
“He told me if we gave them the money, we would live. If we didn’t, they would kill us,” she told the magistrate. Moreover, the woman reportedly recounted a particular instance when, she claimed, she was sexually assaulted by two of the suspects while a third one stood guard.
“They were laughing, slapped me and told me to keep quiet when I started crying,” she purportedly said while giving her statement.
Raza Dar allegedly used her mobile phone to send messages to her contacts seeking money, per her statement. While no one initially responded, the second woman’s mother eventually informed the suspects that USD 100,000 had been arranged, according to the statement.
Before telling them that they were free to leave, Raza Dar allegedly told the women that he had received the money, the survivor’s statement suggests.
The woman claimed that she and her friend were rescued after a vehicle driven by the main accused got into an accident while they were being driven towards the airport.
RAZA DAR MET THE WOMEN LAST YEAR
The two women – one from the Netherlands and the other from Venezuela – were allegedly abducted on June 29 and gangraped in Lahore. The police have arrested four men, while one is absconding. They were sent to five-day police custody by a local court on Friday.
During the probe, police have said, it emerged that Raza Dar met the two women in Singapore last year, and they were partners in a cryptocurrency venture. He arranged business visas for them for their visit to Pakistan.
– Ends
(With inputs from PTI)
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
