KARACHI: A sessions court has sentenced a man to 10-year imprisonment for raping a woman at a guest house in Clifton in 2025.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Abdul Zahoor Chandio also imposed a Rs200,000 fine on convict Asad Anwar, directing him to pay it to the rape survivor as compensation.

According to state prosecutor Irfana Qadri, the accused was working for a marketing company and used to train new appointees. She added that the victim was a new appointee at the company and the accused was assigned to train her along with others.

However, the prosecutors said after four to five days of training, the survivor informed the accused that she wanted to quit. However, the accused asked her to meet him at a guest house and when she went there, he sexually assaulted her.

The prosecutor also said that CCTV footage from the guest house and the room booking details confirmed the presence of the accused at the relevant time and place.

On the other hand, the defence counsel denied the allegations and submitted that the victim had lodged the complaint after a delay.

The court noted that it was now a settled law that “delay in a sexual offence is not automatically fatal because the victim or her family may take time to report the occurrence”.

It also noted that the DNA examination report corroborated the survivor’s statement.

A case was registered at the Boat Basin police station under Section 376 (rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2026