HARIPUR: The area magistrate here on Monday sent a man, accused of marrying his stepdaughter deceitfully, to jail after expiry of his one-day police remand.

Bashir Khan, the Investigation Officer (IO) in the case, quoted Syeda Shehr Bano of Pind Jamal Khan village as saying that after the death of her husband about two years back, she married Syed Waris Ali Shah of Muhllah Raja Abad Haripur and shifted to his home with her five children.

She accused Shah of inducing her elder daughter into elopement and later marrying her with the support of family members and friends.

The complainant claimed she was still Shah’s wife and under Shariah, marrying the stepdaughter was a punishable crime.

On her complaint, the Sera-i-Saleh police registered a criminal case against nine people, including the couple, a prayer leader and nikah registrar under section 493-A/34 of the PPC on Sept 28, 2017, and obtained religious decree against the marriage.

The police had arrested six accused, including the prayer leader, and the parents of the principal accused, who were still behind bars. However, the accused and his wife obtained bail before arrest and clarified their position at a news conference the other day. The accused claimed he had divorced the complainant several months before marrying her daughter who was from her late husband.

He claimed his marriage was in line with legal and religious injunctions. His second wife, who was also present at the news conference, endorsed the statement of her husband.

Meanwhile, when the accused appeared before the additional district judge for confirmation of their BBA, the judge cancelled their bail and handed them over to police on Saturday.

According to IO, Shah’s wife was sent to Abbottabad jail the same day while one day physical remand of Shah was obtained from the area magistrate for investigation which was expired on Monday (today), and the accused was again produced before the judicial magistrate who sent him to Haripur jail.

TREE PLANTATION: The students of government schools and colleges would plant 10,000 saplings during the current plantation season and would also take care of the trees.

Deputy commissioner Syed Fayyaz Ali Shah stated this while inaugurating the tree plantation campaign themed as ‘mera drakhat mer jaan’ (my tree is my life) at Government Postgraduate College for Women, Haripur, on Monday.

The DC distributed over 500 saplings among the students who planted them on the college premises.

Mr Shah urged the students to help the district administration make the campaign a success, saying the tree plantation campaign would help neutralise the impact of air pollution.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2018