KARACHI: A judicial magistrate remanded on Tuesday a man in police custody in a case pertaining to the rape of his young stepdaughter.

Police booked the suspect for allegedly subjecting his six-year-old stepdaughter to a sexual assault at his home in a Shah Latif Town locality on Feb 18.

The investigating officer produced the suspect before a judicial magistrate (Malir) and informed the court that the initial medical report confirmed that the girl was raped.

He sought two-week physical remand of the suspect for questioning. The magistrate handed him over to the police on four-day physical remand and directed the IO to produce him again with a progress report at the next hearing.

The prosecution said the police arrested the suspect on a complaint of the victim’s mother, adding that the woman had married him around two years back and she had a six-year-old daughter from her first husband who was living with her. The mother had gone somewhere on the morning of Feb 18 and her husband raped the girl at his home in Qazzafi Town.

A case was registered against the suspect under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim’s mother at the Shah Latif Town police station.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2018