PESHAWAR, Oct 6: The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed annoyance over re-abduction of a girl who had been kidnapped about four years ago and forced into prostitution before she escaped four months ago.

A bench comprising Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan and Justice Nasirul Mulk reprimanded officials of Nowshera police and directed them to recover the girl, Shabnam.

The bench fixed Oct 13 for next hearing of the case. Suo motu notice of the case was taken by senior Supreme Court judge Justice Rana Baghwandas a few months ago. The case has been entrusted to the Peshawar registry of the Supreme Court.

The girl was allegedly kidnapped on July 2, 2001, and sold in Punjab. About four months ago, she escaped from a brothel in Rawalpindi.

During her absence, a court had acquitted six people charged with her kidnapping.

When she escaped, she charged three more people in the offence and filed a writ petition in the Peshawar High Court requesting trial of all the nine accused.

The petition has been pending before the high court, while on Sept 19 the girl was again kidnapped allegedly by the same people.

The Supreme Court bench inquired from Superintendent of Police, Investigation, Nowshera, Ghulam Hussain, why the girl had not been recovered yet.

The official stated that police had arrested one Sirajuddin in the case, while his wife, Nasreen, a former councillor, had been granted interim pre-arrest bail by a court in Nowshera.

The bench observed that if police had intended they would have recovered the girl. It ordered the SP to inform the court about the progress in the case in the next hearing.

NWFP Advocate-General Mohammad Younas Tanoli and Additional Advocate-General Essa Khan stated that the accused acquitted by the trial court could be re-tried under other sections of law. They stated that initially the accused were only charged with kidnapping, but later the nature of the offence changed and they could now also be charged under the Offence of Zina (Enforcement of Hudood) Ordinance, 1979.

The bench observed that the fresh trial of the accused could not be termed as double jeopardy in terms of Article 13 of the Constitution as they could be tried under other sections of law.

The government lawyers informed the bench that the state had filed an appeal before the Federal Shariat Court against the acquittal of six accused. The Shariat Court might remand the case back to the trial court, they said.