KARACHI: A judicial magistrate remanded on Saturday seven men, including three brothers, in police custody and sent their four female accomplices to prison in a case pertaining to kidnapping of a newborn baby from a government hospital.

The three brothers — Sarwar, Mohammed Anwar and Umar — and Khan Mohammed, Masihullah, Juma Khan, Rozi Khan, Ms Musarrat Anwar Khan, Ms Bipu, Nadia and Bano Gul have been booked for allegedly selling the baby boy after kidnapping him in Orangi Town’s Qatar Hospital on March 22.

Police produced the suspects before a judicial magistrate (west) and the investigating officer sought their custody for questioning.

The magistrate handed over the male suspects to police on three-day physical remand and sent the women to prison on judicial remand.

However, the court allowed the IO to interrogate the women suspects on the premises of the women’s prison.

The prosecution said that Musarrat took away the newborn boy from the hospital and she was identified through closed-circuit television camera footage, adding that the newborn baby was sold twice and recovered on March 24 during a raid in Afghan Basti near Sohrab Goth while the alleged kidnappers were also arrested.

A case was registered against the suspects under Sections 363 (punishment for kidnapping), 369 (kidnapping child under 10 years with intent to steal from its person), 370 (buying or disposing of any person as a slave) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father.

Meanwhile, the court also remanded Musarrat to prison in another identical case for allegedly abducting a newborn baby of complainant Nazak Hussain from the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital in September last year.

Child’s torture case

Another judicial magistrate issued on Saturday a notice to prosecution on applications of a complainant seeking fresh medical examination of a victim and addition of relevant section of the law against child labour in a case pertaining to torture and detention of an 11-year-old child servant.

Mohammed Rizwan Shaikh and his wife have been booked for allegedly torturing and wrongfully detaining their und­erage servant Ali Asghar in their house in Defence Housing Authority.

The magistrate granted bail to Rizwan Shaikh on Friday since the offences were bailable.

The lawyer for the complainant Liaquat Ali moved applications and submitted that the medical examination of the captive was not properly conducted and asked the court for a fresh examination.

The counsel also sought addition of relevant section of the law against child labour in the FIR and the magistrate issued a notice to the prosecutor on the applications till March 27.

Meanwhile, the court also issued warrant for arrest of Rizwan Shaikh since he was found absent when police produced the victim before the court for his statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

The magistrate also put the guarantor on notice for not ensuring the presence of the suspect.

Published in Dawn, March 26th, 2017