A local court in Karachi on Tuesday issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for a cleric accused of solemnising the marriage of an under-age girl Neha, who was allegedly forced to convert to Islam.

Qazi Mufti Ahmed Jaan Raheemi, who was on October 16 declared an absconder in the case filed by Neha, is also nominated in a case pertaining to the conversion and underage marriage of Arzoo Raja.

The court was hearing the case pertaining to Neha's underage marriage, which was filed by the victim last year, in which she had nominated the cleric, her purported husband Muhammad Imran and his four relatives. Last month, the court had issued a bailable warrant against Raheemi and four other suspects in the case.

During today's hearing, the investigating officer told the court that the warrant could not be executed and asked for more time to arrest the suspects. The judge then issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the suspects and directed the IO to produce them before the court on November 16.

In a previous hearing of the case, the court had observed that the statements of the witnesses supported the complainant's account, who said that she was under 13 years of age when she was forcefully married off to Imran.

The judge noted that “she (Neha) deposed that they (suspects) forcibly obtained her signatures on plain papers and the co-accused committed zina with her”. Neha had recorded her statement under Section 200 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). In her statement before the judicial magistrate, the victim had denied having embraced Islam.

“On careful examination of the statements recorded during preliminary inquiry, it appears that the complainant in her statement stated that she is less than 13 years [old] and she was not willing in the nikah with the accused Muhammad Imran,” Judicial Magistrate (West) Wajid Ali Channa had said in an earlier hearing.

The judge pointed out that under the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, the marriage of any individual who is under 18 years of age was prohibited.

He had further stated that Neha's "nikah was solemnised without her consent under pressure, coercion and influence. Hence [...] the offence under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013, read with Section 200 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1898, is prima facie made out against the accused persons namely Muhammad Imran, Muhammad Rehan, Mst Sundus, Mst Azra and Qazi Mufti Ahmed Jaan Raheemi".

“Let the private complaint be admitted and brought on regular file and registered,” he had ordered.

Last year, the case was initially registered under Sections 365-B (kidnapping, abducting or inducing woman to compel for marriage etc), 376 (punishment for rape), 342 (punishment for wrongful confinement), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code at Karachi's Ittehad Town police station on the victim's complaint.

Later, Sections 3 (punishment for male contracting party), Section 4 (punishment for solemnising a child marriage) and Section 5 (punishment for parent or guardian concerned in a child marriage) of the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act, 2013 were incorporated in the first information report on the directives of the judicial magistrate.

In May 2019, three of the five suspects escaped from the court after an additional district and sessions judge recalled the pre-arrest bail granted to them against a surety of Rs30,000 each.

Arzoo Raja

Raheemi is also accused of officiating the conversion to Islam of Arzoo Raja, another under-age Christian girl who was allegedly abducted and married to a Muslim man. A case pertaining to her marriage is underway in the Sindh High Court.

In a previous hearing, a division bench of the SHC, headed by Justice K K Agha, had directed that the girl be taken back to a shelter home and told police to proceed against her alleged husband for violating the Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2013 after it was established that the girl was 14 years of age.

According to the first information report of the case registered on his complaint, Arzoo's father Raja stated that on October 13, he and his wife went to work while their son Shahbaz had gone to school. The complainant said his three daughters, including Arzoo, were present at their home in Karachi's Railway Colony when he received a call from a relative, who told him that Arzoo was missing.

Raja said he reached home and contacted their neighbours, but could not trace his daughter. He subsequently lodged a case regarding the abduction of his daughter against unknown persons at the Frere police station.

Arzoo's family members earlier this month told Dawn that her purported husband, Syed Ali Azhar, lived in a house opposite theirs along with his family and was at least 45-years-old. “The rascal who abducted her has prepared fake papers to show that she is 18-years-old,” her mother said.

Police had booked Azhar, the girl's alleged husband, and arrested his brothers, Syed Shariq Ali, Syed Mohsin Ali, and a friend, Danish, for allegedly abducting the underage girl, purportedly forcibly converting her and marrying her to a Muslim man.

Initially, Arzoo and her supposed husband petitioned the SHC seeking a restraining order against the FIR. She submitted in the petition that she converted to Islam of her free will and also asked her family members to embrace Islam, but they refused.

She said she also contracted marriage with Azhar of her own will without duress and fear and because of which her family members had registered a kidnapping case against her spouse and in-laws.

Therefore, on Oct 27, the bench had restrained the Frere police from making any arrest in the FIR against the spouse and in-laws of Arzoo and directed the SHO of Preedy police station to provide protection to the couple.

Subsequently, a judicial magistrate had dismissed an application filed by the girl's family seeking to send her to a shelter home from the custody of her alleged husband. Her parents contended that she was 13 and was forcibly converted to Islam after being abducted.

Meanwhile, the provincial law officer filed an application in the SHC seeking placement of the girl in the care of a shelter home to ensure her safety and protection.

The bench took up the application for hearing on November 2 and had directed the police to recover the girl and shift her to shelter home. Police subsequently recovered the girl on the same day and shifted her to a shelter home while Azhar was also taken into custody and on the following day a magistrate handed him over to police on three-day physical remand.