April 09, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1429

KARACHI, April 8: An interim charge-sheet was filed on Tuesday in a case pertaining to the gang-rape of a young woman on the premises of Mazar-i-Quaid last month.

Investigation Officer Sabir Hussain submitted the charge-sheet in the court of a civil judge and judicial magistrate of former district East.

According to the charge-sheet, 18-year-old woman from Lodhran, accompanied by her family, came to visit the city on the night of March 15 when they paid a trip to the Mazar. Her husband went outside to bring in the remaining members of the family, who were waiting outside in a bus, when a power breakdown occurred.

The charge-sheet says that the woman was kidnapped by the assistant security manager of the Mazar and his associates when the lights went off. She was taken to a room where she was forced to drink wine. She was later sexually assaulted. The kidnappers kept her in their custody for a day and a half and then threw her at the gate of the Mazar in the early hours of March 17. She was spotted in an unconscious state by Rangers personnel.

The investigation officer told Judicial Magistrate Javed Hussain that there was little doubt about the involvement of the Mazar assistant security officer in the crime because the victim had not only identified the accused while recording her statement with the SHO — the accused was then in police custody — but had also identified him in an identification parade conducted in the court of Mr Hussain. He added that police efforts were under way to arrest other suspects in the case.

He also submitted that he was waiting for the results of a DNA test and would submit a final charge-sheet once the results of the test had been received.

The accused is currently in judicial custody.

The case (FIR No 50/08) was registered at the Brigade police station under Section 365-B of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s father. The section was inserted in the penal code through the Protection of Women Act 2006.

The court directed the investigation officer to submit a final charge-sheet till April 10.