W*, a suspect in the motorway gang rape case, surrendered before the Lahore Police on Sunday, media reported. He claims to be innocent and surrendered upon the pressure of family. The accused allegedly have a previous criminal record and was released on bail 14 days before the motorway incident happened.

According to the details, the accused surrendered himself at the Model Town police station, Lahore while claiming that he was not involved in the alleged rape and robbery incident. He has asked the authorities to conduct a DNA test to prove he was not present at the scene of the crime. However, the suspect claimed that his mobile phone was under his brother-in-law's use, who have been in touch with the main suspect Abid Ali.

“A* refused to surrender himself with me but he may do soon. He was involved in some criminal activities with Abid Ali and is still in contact with him,” he reportedly informed the police.

W* was identified as a suspect when the police traced his phone signals at the scene of the crime when the incident happened.

"We are 95% sure that [the person we have tracked down] is his partner as his phone signals were traced to the location of the crime [at the time of the incident]," The Punjab police chief Inam Ghani told while briefing the media.

The main accused, Abid Malhi, a resident of Fort Abbas, remains at large. Police had identified him as the prime suspect after samples matched with his DNA from a criminal database of 2013. Abid had 7 cases registered against him - including two gang-rape cases. Counter-Terrorism Department (CTD) is conducting raids for the arrest of the criminal.

The incident

Two "robbers" allegedly gang-raped a woman on the Lahore-Sialkot motorway on Wednesday while she was waiting with her children for help on the motorway after her car stopped either due to fuel shortage. She called her relative in Gujranwala for help who advised her to call the motorway police while he, himself, left immediately to her rescue and found her terrified with her clothes stained with blood.

As per the police, two armed men found woman alone in her car with her children and forced them to a nearby field at gunpoint and gang-raped her. Punjab Police, in a statement, confirmed the arrests and said that 20 teams of Lahore Police and CIA. The teams are headed by the deputy inspector general of police (investigation), had been constituted on the orders of newly appointed Inspector General Inam Ghani to investigate the case. The police said that they are taking all the necessary measures to catch the culprits.

Rs 2.5 million reward

Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar, on Saturday, had announced a reward of Rs2.5 million for each of the suspects if information leading to their arrest is shared. He guaranteed that the identity of those bringing forward any information will be kept confidential.

"We worked day and night and launched a probe using scientific techniques. I personally monitored the progress and directed the completion of the probe expediently," Buzdar said while announcing the reward in a press conference.

The reward was also announced via social media accounts of Punjab Police: