A South District judicial magistrate on Tuesday sent two suspects arrested in connection with the kidnapping and sexual abuse of a nine-year-old flood-hit girl in Karachi’s Clifton neighbourhood to jail on judicial remand.
The girl along with her family had come to Karachi after being left destitute by the recent floods in Shikarpur. She was kidnapped and sexually abused by two men within the jurisdiction of the Boat Basin police station on October 23.
The investigating officer, DSP Fahmida Abbasi, produced the arrested suspects before Judicial Magistrate Tahmina Yasir after the expiry of their physical remand in police custody. The court sent the suspects to jail on judicial remand with a direction to wrap up her investigation and submit a charge sheet as required under Section 173 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) on the next hearing slated for November 9.
The IO told The News that the samples of the suspects and the victim had been sent to a laboratory for cross-matching and results were awaited, adding that the final investigation report would be submitted once the results were received.
During an identification parade before the magistrate on October 27, the victim picked out the two men as the ones who had kidnapped and subjected her to criminal assault. She has also recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC.
An FIR was registered on the complaint of the girl’s mother at the Boat Basin police station under sections 364-A (kidnapping or abducting a person under the age of 14), 376 (punishment for rape) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
The complainant said in the FIR that she is a widow who came to Karachi with her six children after the recent floods. She said she has been living on the footpath of Street No. 3 in Shah Rasool Colony, and making do with langar food at the Abdullah Shah Ghazi shrine and begging.
The woman said her daughter had gone to a mall in Clifton at around noon, adding that she returned two hours later with bloodstains on her clothes. When the mother asked the girl about it, she said that two people had abducted her in a car and sexually abused her.
Source: The News