PESHAWAR: A child protection court has convicted a minor girl’s uncle and brother of sexual assault against her and awarded them life and 20 years imprisonment respectively.

Judge Wadeeya Mushtaq Malik also handed down 20 years imprisonment and Rs100,000 fine to the girl’s mother for forcing her into prostitution.

The court pronounced that the prosecution had proved charges against the accused, including girl’s maternal uncle Muzzamil, brother Fazal Dayan and mother Beguma.

The prosecution had charged the two male accused under Pakistan Penal Code Section 276 (rape) and the woman under Section 371-A (forced prostitution).

The judge convicted Muzzamil for raping his niece and sentenced him under PPC Section 376 to life imprisonment and fined him Rs100,000.

Mother sentenced for forcing her into prostitution

Fazal Dayan was not found guilty of raping his sister but as he was found guilty of sexually abusing her, the court convicted him under PPC Section 377-B (sexual abuse of a child) and awarded him 20 years rigorous imprisonment and Rs1 million fine.

The FIR of the sexual assault was registered by the Pahari Pura police station on Sept 29, 2018. Initially, the female accused had visited the police station and accused his son and daughter of being involved in incest.

However, the police claimed that when they went to the woman’s house, her 14-year-old daughter revealed that her mother had forced her and her minor sister into prostitution.

The girl had also alleged that her uncle and brother had raped her.

During trial, she revealed that she was raped by her uncle, while her brother had sexually abused her as he tried to convince her for the commission of incest.

The girl also claimed that her mother had taken her to a brothel for prostitution at the tender age of five or six years and that she fell unconscious after she was subjected to sexual abuse.

The defence counsel had denied the prosecution’s claim and said the gravity of the offence could not be considered sufficient for the conviction of the accused.

He said the accused had remained in the custody of the police but none of them had confessed to the crimes.

The defence lawyer contended that there were doubts in the prosecution’s version and for the same reason, the girl’s sister, who was also allegedly raped and forced into prostitution, was abandoned by the prosecution and was not produced as witness to record her testimony.

A deputy public prosecutor claimed that the reports of the medical examination of the alleged assault victim and her sister proved the commission of the offence.

He added that being a case of incest, the gravity of the offence increased manifold compared to that of the simple rape.

The deputy public prosecutor said no one could presume that the girl would falsely implicate her mother, brother and maternal uncle for the commission of such a heinous offence.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2020