KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Wednesday recorded the confessional statement of a suspect in a case pertaining to rape and murder of a seven-year-old girl.

The suspect, who is the brother-in-law of the victim, has been booked with two others for allegedly torturing the minor girl to death after subjecting her to criminal assault at their home in Bhittaiabad, Gulistan-i-Jauhar, on Aug 1.

The investigating officer moved an application before a judicial magistrate (Malir) and submitted that the suspect was willing to record his confessional statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) before the court.

After completing the legal formalities, the magistrate recorded confessional statement of the suspect in which he confessed to have raped and killed the minor girl.

After recording confession, the magistrate sent him to prison on judicial remand.

Police claimed to have arrested three suspects in the case on Aug 2 and produced them before the judicial magistrate concerned on the following day for remand, but the magistrate referred the case to administrative court of antiterrorism courts, Karachi, on the grounds that the offence came within the ambit of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997.

Lawyers boycott proceedings

The legal fraternity on Wednesday boycotted proceedings at the Sindh High Court, the City Courts, district courts Malir and special tribunals on the second anniversary of the killing of more than 60 lawyers in a suicide bomb blast in Quetta in 2016.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2018