LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court on Monday, during the trial inside jail, indicted Imran Ali, the alleged serial killer from Kasur, in rape and murder case of seven-year-old Zainab.

The suspect was produced before ATC judge Sajjad Ahmad in Kot Lakhpat jail where the prosecution handed charge-sheet over to him.

The suspect pleaded not guilty and opted to defend himself.

During over 10-hour long proceedings, the judge recorded statements of 20 prosecution witnesses. He directed the prosecution to present more witnesses on Tuesday (today).

The court is conducting the trial on a day-to-day basis to conclude it within seven days as directed by the Lahore High Court. The prosecution had requested the court to hold the trial inside jail for security reasons.

Earlier, prosecution team’s head Abdul Rauf Wattoo told the trial court that the different evidences had been collected, including the CCTV footage, DNA test and polygraph test.

Advocate Mehar Shakeel Multani appeared on behalf of the suspect. The counsel would present defence witnesses after the testimony of prosecution witnesses.

As per the prosecution, Imran Ali took Zainab to an under-constructed house where he killed her after sexual assault. Later, the suspect dumped her body on a heap of garbage.

Zainab was kidnapped on Jan 4 near her aunt’s house in Kasur where she was going to learn Quran. Her body was recovered on Jan 9. The police had arrested the suspect with the help of DNA test.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2018