Lahore, June 4: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Wednesday rejected the appeals filed by the two men convicted in the 2020 Sialkot-Lahore Motorway gang rape case, upholding the punishments awarded by the trial court.
A division bench comprising Justice Syed Shahbaz Ali Rizvi and Justice Tariq Mehmood Bajwa announced the verdict after hearing arguments from both the prosecution and defence.
The two convicts, Abid Ali alias Malhi and Shafqat Ali alias Bagga, had challenged their convictions and sentences handed down by an anti-terrorism court on March 20, 2021. The trial court had sentenced them to death, life imprisonment, and additional prison terms for their roles in the crime.
In their appeals, the convicts argued that weaknesses and inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case created reasonable doubt and that the trial court’s judgment was excessive and contrary to established legal principles.
During the proceedings, the state prosecutor maintained that the prosecution had presented substantial and credible evidence linking the accused to the offence. He urged the court to uphold the convictions, asserting that there were no legal flaws in the trial court’s decision.
After reviewing the arguments, the high court dismissed the appeals and affirmed the sentences.
The Motorway gang rape case sparked nationwide outrage in September 2020 when a French woman of Pakistani origin was gang-raped in front of her three children after her vehicle ran out of fuel and stopped on the Sialkot-Lahore Motorway late at night. The attackers allegedly dragged the woman from her car before committing the assault.
The incident drew widespread condemnation and intensified public debate on women’s safety and law enforcement after controversial remarks by the then Lahore police chief appeared to place partial responsibility on the survivor.
Following the attack, Gujjarpura police registered a case on September 9, 2020, under various provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code and the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997. The case became one of Pakistan’s most high-profile criminal prosecutions in recent years.