PESHAWAR: A model court on Thursday convicted a man of sexually assaulting and killing am eight-year-old girl in Nowshera over two years ago and sentenced him to life imprisonment with fine of Rs 500,000.

Judge Tufail Ahmad pronounced the order in Nowshera declaring that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused and the evidence on record connected him with the commission of the offence.

The court convicted the accused on three counts. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with Rs300,000 fine under Section 302 (intentional murder) of Pakistan Penal Code, 10 years rigorous imprisonment with Rs100,000 fine under Section 376 (rape) of the PPC and seven years rigorous imprisonment with Rs100,000 fine under sections 50 and 55 of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act.

All sentences will run concurrently.

The deceased had gone missing on Dec 27, 2018, in Nawa Kalay area of Nowshera after she stepped out to a nearby house for learning the Holy Quran.

A day later, her body with marks of injury, especially on head, was found in an open grave at a graveyard near Khesghi Road.

The deceased was a third grade student in a private school. Her postmortem had confirmed that she had been sexually assaulted before killing.

Two days after the incident, the local police had arrested the accused, who was a neighbour of the deceased.

The FIR of the incident was registered with the Nowshera Kalan police station. Initially, the case was registered under Section 302 of the PPC but Section 376 of the PPC and sections 50 and 54 of the Child Protection and Welfare Act were included in the FIR after the medical report confirmed that the deceased was sexually assaulted.

The incident caused a public outcry on social media and led to several protest demonstrations. The police arrested the accused after his DNA matched the samples collected from the crime scene.

The state prosecutor contended that the crime of the accused had been proved without any shadow of doubt. He contended that the testimony of different prosecution witnesses along with the medical examination report proved the involvement of the accused in the offence.

He argued that the accused was involved in a heinous and barbaric offence, and did not deserve mercy.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2021