KARACHI: A sessions court sentenced a man to a total of 13-year imprisonment for threatening and raping a teenage girl at gunpoint.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Irshad Hussain, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Trail Court (West), found Najeeb Ahmed Tanoli alias Boby guilty and sentenced him to three years under Section 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 20 years under Section 376 of the Pakistan Penal Code for repeatedly raping the 18-year-old girl at gunpoint.

The court ruled that both sentences would run concurrently, with the highest sentence being 10 years.

The judge observed that the accused had kept the victim under threat of killing and making her video viral and then “committed multiple times the shameful act of zina”.

The court also noted that the version of the survivor that she was forcibly raped by the accused was fully supported by the medical evidence. “I have not found any element or piece of evidence which suggests or shows that the victim was the consented party here in this case,” the judge observed.

The court also fined him a total of Rs150,000 and ruled that in case of default, he would have to serve additional nine months in jail.

According to state prosecutor Jameela Saeed Odho, the complainant informed police that the accused blackmailed her over the phone, threatening to share a telephonic conversation between her and her husband with their family members, which could potentially lead to the end of their marriage.

The complainant, in her testimony, stated that she had got married with a man of her choice over telephone without her parents’ knowledge while she secretly remained in contact with her husband. She added that the accused had texted her and blackmailed her, threatening to share her conversations with her family if she did not comply with his demands.

The accused told her that if she wanted to prevent that, she would have to meet him at his place. The survivor went to the accused’s residence on June 25, 2023, where he allegedly committed the offence at gunpoint and recorded a video of her.

The accused repeatedly committed the offence on multiple occasions with the victim until August. Later, the victim shared her ordeal with her family members and registered a case against the accused, prosecutor Odho said.

During the trial, the prosecution produced eight witnesses against the accused to support its case. On the other hand, defence counsel Muhammad Shafqat argued that the FIR was lodged with delay and that the DNA evidence did not support the case against his client. He further contended that his client was falsely implicated after rejecting the complainant’s proposal.

However, the court dismissed the defence’s plea, noting that it failed to provide substantial evidence to support its claims.

The case was registered at the Madina Colony police station under sections 376 (rape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the PPC.

Published in Dawn, August 27th, 2024