Three more suspects sent to judicial remand in Lahore case involving two foreign women

LAHORE: A judicial magistrate on Monday sent three suspects to 14-day judicial remand in a case concerning the alleged abduction and rape of two foreign women in Lahore.

Defence C police produced the suspects before the court after the expiry of their physical remand and requested that they be sent to judicial custody. The magistrate accepted the request, ordered that the suspects be shifted to judicial lockup and directed the police to submit an investigation report at the next hearing.

A duty magistrate had separately granted police a five-day physical remand on Sunday for another suspect identified in the first information report as Boss by the complainant. Four other suspects, including a relative of a senior political figure, had already been sent to jail on judicial remand last week.

High Court petition disposed of

Also on Monday, a Lahore High Court judge disposed of a habeas corpus petition filed by the mother of the suspect identified as Boss, who had sought her son’s recovery from police custody. A law officer informed the court that the petitioner’s son was already on physical remand, after which the matter was disposed of.

Case registration and allegations

The case was registered earlier this month after Police Emergency Helpline 15 received a call from Spain from the father of one of the women reporting the incident. One of the women is a Dutch national and the other is from Venezuela.

According to the FIR, the two women were abducted by five suspects, including a close relative of a senior political personality, who allegedly demanded ransom and sexually assaulted them during their captivity. The suspects allegedly sought $1.5 million in ransom. The case includes charges under Section 375-A of the Pakistan Penal Code relating to rape and Section 365-A relating to kidnapping for extortion.

Victim’s statement

According to the victim’s sworn statement, she and her Venezuelan companion arrived in Pakistan on June 26, 2026 at the invitation of a local business partner whom they said they had first met in Singapore in October 2025. The Dutch woman stated that the main suspect claimed links with influential government figures and arranged their visas on the pretext of organising meetings with high-profile investors for her company.

She said the two women stayed for three days at a hotel in Islamabad, during which they went sightseeing in Nathia Gali and attended business presentations, before travelling by car to Lahore on the afternoon of June 29. The suspect then allegedly took them to a modern house in Lahore, saying they were going there for a relative’s birthday celebration, but the women found the house empty on arrival.

In her account, four armed men carrying firearms and ropes entered the house within 15 minutes, tied the women’s hands behind their backs and assaulted them physically. She alleged that the main suspect initially pretended to be another victim but later it became clear he was acting with the armed men.

The complainant said the captors demanded large sums in ransom, initially asking for $2 million and threatening to kill the women and sell their organs if payment was not made. She said the women were separated, with her being kept downstairs under armed guard while her companion was held upstairs.

During the night, she alleged, the main suspect and another man referred to as the boss took her phone and transferred $17,000 in cryptocurrency from her accounts. She also said she was repeatedly forced to send distressed voice notes to family and friends asking for money, but managed to include a pre-arranged distress code word, CARLITOS, which led her family in Europe to alert international and local law enforcement authorities.

She further stated that on June 30 an armed assailant wearing a black local suit sexually assaulted her in a bedroom. On July 1, she said, the key suspect drove the women away while claiming he was taking them to the airport. According to her statement, she used a hidden mobile phone to track the route and concluded that he was misleading them and stalling while remaining in contact with the boss.

Fearing they were being taken to another location, the women began shouting for the driver to stop. The complainant said they jumped out of the moving vehicle after it slightly collided with a car ahead and ran to a nearby mechanic’s shop for safety.

According to her statement, a local traffic police officer saw the women and called emergency backup. She said the women, who were severely traumatised, initially panicked and ran from the first police response vehicle, but senior police officers later arrived with a female officer, calmed them and showed that law enforcement had been tracking the kidnapping case for the previous 48 hours. The women were then taken safely to a police station, where their statements were recorded.

The magistrate sealed the testimony after the victim explicitly confirmed that she had given her statement voluntarily and without external pressure so that legal proceedings could move forward against the accused.