Misuse of the verb allege?

Solution 1:

Alleged (adjective) : said or thought by some people to be the stated bad or illegal thing, although you have no proof. (Cambridge dictionary).

The sentence essentially says the accused man committed the crime. In my opinion, the writer has used "alleged" as a synonym for "accused", though in its objectionable sense.

Another fairer phrasing could be:

• Bleeding profusely, she pleaded with her attacker- alleged to be Mushataq- to take her to a hospital.

It is routinely applied to actions,events, and things that have been asserted but not proved. In Journalism, the use of "allege or the relative adverb allegedly", protects them from any libel suit.

Some examples:

• Several alleged drug lords are to be put on trial.

  Opposition parties have protested over alleged vote rigging in the election

  They were in the house when the alleged crime took place.

Solution 2:

Alleged is an adjective:

ADJECTIVE

[ATTRIBUTIVE]

Said, without proof, to have taken place or to have a specified illegal or undesirable quality:

In that sentence, it correctly modifies attacker as an adjectival use of the past participle form:

mid-15c., "quoted," past participle adjective from allege.

Attested from 1610s in sense of "brought forth in court;" 1670s as "asserted but not proved."

The adjectival use of verbs is quite common as you will find in this link.

As a third party news report in the public realm, inserting the adjective alleged is a professional practice to protect the author and publisher from legal liability. Though she did not plead with her alleged attacker, but with her attacker, the news reporter is prohibited by professional ethics and liability from communicating that assumption to the public, and the simplest linguistic insertion of alleged is a ubiquitous CYA technique in journalism.

The obviously logical:

• Bleeding profusely, she pleaded with the attacker, Mushataq, to take her to a hospital.

is transformed by liability considerations to:

• Bleeding profusely, she pleaded with the alleged attacker, Mushataq, to take her to a hospital.

Normally, people ignore the insertion, but from time to time, pedants make hay from the humorous ambiguities the added word can imply.

oxforddictionaries.com

www.etymonline.com

Solution 3:

To be clear, as well as not judging who's guilty or lying, they should have said

• She reported that she pleaded with her attacker (allegedly Mushataq) to take her to the hospital.

Or, if she knew Mushataq:

• She reported that she pleaded with Mushataq (allegedly her attacker) to take her to the hospital.

But as noted, it's easier (and typical) for newspaper reporters/editors to just stick in "alleged", even though this caution often errs on the side of inaccuracy.

Solution 4:

I'd emphasize that "alleged" refers to a charge or claim, usually by authorities. And "alleged" is not a dodge to avoid libel charges, because, for one thing, it is not a defense for libel. If a statement is defamatory and untrue, that's libel per se. Publishing that a person "was an alleged embezzler" is actionable libel if it's not true.

"Alleged attacker" means the person who authorities are claiming to be the attacker.