MUZAFFARABAD: The court of additional district and session judge in Mirpur has handed down death sentence and a fine of Rs2 million to a 58-year-old man for raping a six year-old-girl in the jurisdiction of Mangla police station some four months ago.

Mohammad Ramzan Arain, a resident of Lahore, had committed the crime on June 9 but the FIR was lodged in Mangla Police Station at 10am on June 13 after a private lady doctor who the victim’s family contacted for her treatment advised them to first report the matter to the police to avoid any problem.

The police apprehended the offender the same day as the medical examination of the victim confirmed occurrence of sexual assault.

According to the police, the six-year-old orphaned victim and her one-year older sister were under the guardianship of their paternal grandparents, as their mother had remarried after the death of their father.

The family, originally belonging to the Tank district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was living in a rented house in Dhok Awan Mangla for the past 19 years.

The elderly convict worked at the cattle pen close to their abode and was addressed by the innocent girls who used to visit her pen to collect leaves for their goat as “doodh wala baba”. On June 9, when both girls were in the pen, he took the younger one inside and sexually assaulted her there.

The victim who was bleeding and crying returned home along with her sister and narrated the incident to the grandmother who initially decided to cover up the matter for the sake oftheir honour, but had to report to the police after deterioration of the victim’s health condition.

The case was challaned by the police in the trial court headed by additional district session judge Jahangir Ahmed Jaral on August 2 and during the proceedings the accused also confessed to committing the crime in his statement before the magistrate under section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code.

In his judgement announced on Friday in less than two and half months after the institution of the case, the judge held that the victim’s medical report, account of the incident by the victim and her sister, forensic science lab report, potency certificate, confessional statement of the accused and other circumstantial evidence had corroborated the charge against him due to which he was declared guilty of rape with a minor.

Published in Dawn, October 17th, 2021