KARACHI: The Sindh High Court chief justice directed the police on Monday to provide protection to a rape victim and her family in Kunri, Umerkot district.

Chief Justice Ahmed Ali M. Shaikh had taken a suo motu notice of the alleged rape of the woman, belonging to the Hindu community, by a man from an influential family last month, and ordered action against the culprit and sought a report from the police.

Umerkot superintendent of police Usman Ijaz Bajwa submitted a report before the SHC on Monday saying that the deputy inspector general of police (Mirpurkhas) had constituted a committee under his supervision. The committee included the sub-divisional police officer of Kunri and the Nabisar SHO to conduct fair and impartial investigations into the incident.

The report said the FIR of the incident was registered at the Nabisar police station under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code and the suspect was arrested.

It further said that the medical examination of the victim, daughter of a farmer, was conducted at the Kunri taluka hospital and samples for a DNA test were also collected. It added that medical reports confirmed that the victim was subjected to a sexual assault and the investigation was under way.

The SP also informed the SHC that a show-cause notice had also been issued to the SHO concerned.

The chief justice directed the Mirpurkhas DIG and the Umerkot SP to provide security to the victim and her family.

Show-cause notice to SHO

A judicial magistrate issued on Monday show-cause notices to the Rizvia Society SHO and an officer of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police for arresting a suspect without the permission of the authorities concerned and necessary documentations.

An ASI of the KP police produced Shakeel Ahmed before a judicial magistrate (central) and informed the court that the suspect was an absconder in a case of kidnapping of a woman in Abbottabad in 2006.

He submitted that the suspect was arrested within the Rizvia Society limits and asked for his transit remand. However, the police officer failed to produce documents when the magistrate asked him about the permission letter from the KP home department.

Subsequently, the court called the area SHO and asked him that how a man was arrested within his limits without proper documentations, and an entry about the arrest was also made in the daily dairy of the police station without checking required documents.

The magistrate came down hard on both police officers. At one stage he warned that they would be sent to prison and observed that the arrest of the suspect without documentations was illegal.

Releasing the suspect on personal bond, the magistrate issued show-cause notices to the SHO and ASI for arresting the suspect without permission from the authority concerned and documentations.

Published in Dawn, January 2nd, 2018