LAHORE: A special court for gender based violence on Monday sentenced a man to collective imprisonment of 22 years on charges of kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old woman.

Factory Area police had registered an FIR against Samson Masih, the suspect, and put him to trial last year.

The prosecution presented 10 witnesses to establish its case. It said the victim was throwing garbage outside her house when the suspect abducted her. The suspect kept the woman at an unknown place for almost one month and subjected her to sexual assault.

The prosecution said the police traced the suspect through the location of his mobile phone and recovered the woman.

Presiding Judge Jamshed Mubarak announced the guilty verdict and handed down 15-year imprisonment to the suspect for rape and seven-year term for kidnapping. The sentence will run concurrently.

The judge also imposed a fine of Rs300,000 on the suspect.

BAIL: A sessions court on Monday granted interim pre-arrest bail to a woman facing a charge of killing her two minor step children.

Raiwind police registered an FIR of the incident wherein two minor siblings were electrocuted allegedly by their stepmother Anila.

When the father of the children returned home the woman had already fled with her one-year-old son. The couple had their second marriage a year and a half ago.

The woman approached the court for pre-arrest bail, which the court granted her till July 3.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2021