UMERKOT, Aug 19: The mighty and powerful tribal heads and their relatives are above the law for they enjoy immunity even if anyone of them commits a crime of a heinous nature reveals an investigative report by this correspondent.

Time and again this is proved by the indifference of authorities concerned in taking an action.

Kunri police, like the rest, is so much under the influence of feudal lords that it didn’t arrest the gangsters involved in the rape of a pregnant woman who also made a video of their crime to blackmail her. Failure to get justice forced the woman to commit suicide by jumping into a well, one day after the abomination.

Behram Khan, husband of the deceased woman and resident of Sardar Rind village, Kunri narrating the ordeal said that Farooq and Sheikh Mohammad Rind of Sardar Hasil Khan Rind village kidnapped his 20-year-old wife while she was working outside the house on July 14. They gang-raped the woman and even made video of their shameful act.

They told her to keep mum or else her video would be made public.

However, she confided to her mother-in-law who consoled the woman by saying that the matter would be put before the elder of the tribe Sardar Hasil Khan, uncle of Sheikh Mohammad Rind.

However, Sardar Hasil Khan also warned them to keep their mouths shut because the culprits were his close relatives.

Earlier, Umer Rind, uncle of the deceased woman told Dawn that nothing could deter his niece from taking the life because she knew there was nobody to provide her justice.

Umer Rind said that they requested the SHO Kunri for registration of an FIR but he forced us to accept registration of the death as accidental .

He said that even the post-mortem examination of the body was not done properly at the DHQ Umerkot because of the support of some hospital employees.

Later, the grieving party filed an application in the court of district and sessions judge Umerkot who ordered Kunri police to register a case of Zina and murder.

Police facilitated the accused who obtained pre-arrest interim bail from the high court, Hyderabad circuit bench.

However, the district and sessions court on Wednesday cancelled the bail and culprits escaped from the scene in the presence of police who didn’t bother to arrest them.

Hayat Khatoon, grandmother of the deceased said that previously they were residing in Sardar Hasil Khan Rind’s village but had to move out from there because of the criminality of those people towards the family’s young girls.

“They didn’t sit back but kept chasing us, finally taking the life of my young granddaughter who was married only 15 months ago.”

Money is all that matters and Sardar Hasil Khan being powerful and moneyed would not let the poor family get justice from any quarters, she said disdainfully.

SP Umerkot Munir Ahmed Khuhro said that he had no knowledge about the incident because he took charge only a week back.

However, he said that he had ordered reopening of the case and directed the concerned SHO to produce the accused in three days.