LAHORE: The country’s first juvenile court established in Lahore handed down on Tuesday its first sentence – four-month simple imprisonment to a teenager as well as a fine of Rs500,000 on charges of attempted rape.

A resident of Sabzazar had lodged a complaint with police in 2016 accusing the 15-year-old boy of attempting to rape his seven-year-old daughter. The case was entrusted on Jan 20 to the first child court of Pakistan in Lahore having the jurisdiction of a juvenile court as well.

The then chief justice of the Lahore High Court, Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, now a judge of the Supreme Court, had established this court here in Lahore in December 2017 to deal with cases involving children.

The presiding judge of the juvenile court, Muhammad Akhtar Bhangoo, ruled in his verdict that the accused was found to have engaged the victim girl of about seven years of age in obscene and sexually explicit conduct, thus, committed an offence of sexual abuse punishable under Section 377-B of PPC.

Before deciding the quantum of the sentence, the judge observed that the accused being a juvenile was entitled to have all the rights provided to him under Juvenile Justice System Ordinance 2000.

“He is a first time offender and a child, and has a future ahead of him, therefore, in view of all attending circumstances and while relying upon prosecution evidence, this court sentences the accused under Section 377-B of PPC with simple imprisonment of up to four months only and with a fine of Rs500,000,” the ruling said. In default of payment of fine, the convict would undergo a simple imprisonment of an additional one month.

The judge directed Borstal Institution/Juvenile Jail in-charge to produce the convict before the juvenile court on the first working day after two months from the conviction for an appropriate order as to whether further imprisonment will be unnecessary or not or as to whether the convict be sent on probation for the remaining period of imprisonment.

The Borstal Institution in-charge would be duty bound to submit a detailed report on the physical, mental, psychological, intellectual, moral, religious, educational and social development of the juvenile convict during the period of detention.

Published in Dawn, May 9th, 2018