A 17-year-old hearing impaired girl's father on Thursday pardoned her rapist in a Gujjar Khan sessions court.

According to the police, Munir Ahmed had filed a complaint in police station (PS) Gujar Khan, against a man on February 6, 2016.

In his complaint, Ahmed said that while he originally belonged to Khairpur Tehsil, District Muzaffargarh, he and his family were presently residing at the mansion of Chaudhry Fida Hussain of Gujar Khan. His duty was to take care of Chaudhry’s cattle.

According to the complaint, Ahmed along with his brother, nephews and daughter, was returning from the fields when he heard his daughter scream.

As Ahmed and the other men rushed back, they saw that the accused was sexually assaulting the girl. Once he saw the men the suspect ran off, the initial police report said.

According to the police, the girl was then taken to District Headquarters Hospital in Gujjar Khan for a medical exam, and while the exam proved that there was rape, no DNA samples were taken to identify the suspect.

Sub-inspector Police Nadeem Ahmed, who was initially in charge of the case, told DawnNews that they did everything possible to search for the suspect but he was never found at the time.

The police even widened its search to Kallar Syedan and Jehlum but were unsuccessful in capturing the accused, the sub-inspector said.

Once Nadeem Ahmed was transferred, Sub-inspector Arif was made in charge of the case.

Speaking to DawnNews on the matter Arif said that he had continued looking for the suspect but he had remained an absconder for the past two years until he came to the sessions court one day to procure interim bail.

During the same hearing, the girl's father took the stand and said that he had pardoned the suspect. Ahmad also said that he had registered the complaint against the suspect by mistake and now wanted to withdraw it.

According to eyewitnesses at the court, the 17-year-old hearing impaired girl was crying in court while her father pardoned the suspect.

Talking to DawnNews, Ahmad said that he was made to sign the affidavit by "influential elders" of the area and did not even know what was written in it.

He also said that he belonged to a poor family, while the suspect was a relative of the family he worked for.

According to the police, they will call the suspect a convict in their final report and then leave him to the court's mercy.