KARACHI: The administrative judge of the antiterrorism courts on Saturday accepted a charge sheet filed in the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder case of a six-year-old girl in Manghopir.

The case was transferred to the ATC-III for initiating a trial.

Police had arrested two suspects on April 17 in connection with the minor girl’s alleged kidnapping and murder, which had sparked a violent protest in an Orangi Town area on April 18.

In the charge sheet, the investigating officer stated that a total of five suspects were nominated in the FIR and three of them had been in custody.

It stated that the arrested suspects had confessed to have kidnapped the minor girl on April 16, subjecting her to a sexual assault before murdering her in an attempt to hide their crime.

The IO listed 21 prosecution witnesses in the charge sheet and stated that eyewitnesses had already identified the held suspects during an identification parade.

He stated that in the light of the confessional statement recorded by the held suspects under Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the police and statements of the eyewitnesses recorded before the judicial magistrate under Section 164 of the CrPC, the arrested and fleeing suspects were found involved in the kidnapping, rape and murder of the minor girl.

Two cases were separately registered at the Orangi Town and Manghopir police stations regarding kidnapping, rape of the minor and her murder.

Area residents, mostly activists of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, lodged a violent protest in Manghopir after the tortured body was found a day after she went missing. One protester was killed and 10 personnel of the police and Rangers were hurt.

Three cases against ‘MQM hitman’ sent for trial

The administrative judge also accepted supplementary charge sheets against an alleged hitman, Raees alia Mama, in three different cases pertaining to killings of policemen.

The IOs submitted the supplementary charge sheets in cases pertaining to armed attack on a bus carrying policemen in Chakra Goth, targeted killing of a policeman and possessing illicit arms.

The document mentioned that the alleged hitman, who was then a sector in-charge of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, had opened fire on the bus carrying policeman in order to maintain his control and spread panic in the locality. Separate cases were lodged against the arrested and fleeing suspects in 2011 and 2014 at the Korangi Industrial Area and Zaman Town police stations.

Published in Dawn, May 27th, 2018