KARACHI: The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts on Saturday remanded four suspects in police custody in a case pertaining to rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

The suspects, including an uncle of the deceased and his two sons, have been booked for allegedly torturing the minor girl to death after subjecting her to criminal assault at their home in Bhittaiabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, on Aug 1.

The investigating officer produced the suspects before the administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts, Karachi, and submitted that they were arrested on Aug 2 and produced before the judicial magistrate concerned on the following day for remand, but the magistrate referred the case to administrative court of ATCs on the grounds that the offence came within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

The IO further said that as per initial medical reports, the deceased had also been subjected to rape before being killed and DNA samples of the detained suspects and the victim girl had been collected and sent for analysis to determine the identity of the suspects who had assaulted her.

He sought physical remand of the suspects for further questioning.

The administrative judge handed over the suspects to the IO on five-day physical remand with the direction to produce them again along with a progress report at the next hearing.

According to the prosecution, the victim’s father died around one and a half years ago and since then she was living at her uncle’s house in Bhittaiabad and an elder sister of the victim was also married to their uncle’s son. The victim’s body also bore marks of torture and cigarette burns, it added.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (premeditated murder), 376 (punishment for rape) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Sachal police station on the complaint of the victim’s brother, who had arrived from Jacobabad after the incident.

Later, sections 6 and 7 of the ATA were also incorporated in the FIR on the directive to a judicial magistrate.

Published in Dawn, August 6th, 2018