KARACHI: A sessions court on Tuesday sentenced a man to life imprisonment in a rape case.

The convict, Tahir, was found guilty of subjecting a six-year-old girl to a sexual assault on the premises of a seminary in October 2011 in the Zaman Town area.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (east) Nadeem Ahmed Khan pronounced his verdict after recording the testimonies of witnesses and final arguments from both sides.

The court also directed the convict to pay Rs50,000 to the complainant as compensation and in case of default he would have to undergo an additional three-month imprisonment.

The court in its judgement observed that the victim had specifically deposed against the accused and the witnesses also testified that they saw the accused with her before the offence.

The medical and other documentary evidence also corroborated the testimonies of the prosecution witnesses and the case stood proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, it added.

According to the prosecution, the accused was a madressah student and he took the girl to the rooftop of the seminary and raped her.

Later, the accused was arrested and a case was registered under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code at the Zaman Town police station.

The court extended the benefit of Section 382-B (period of detention to be considered while awarding sentence of imprisonment) of the criminal procedure code to the convict.

A life term in Pakistan means 25 years in prison.

Jail authorities produced the accused in court and following the pronouncement of the verdict he was remanded back to prison along with a conviction warrant to serve out the remainder of his sentence.

Published in Dawn, July 8th, 2015

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