PESHAWAR: A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has turned down the bail petition of a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting his minor foster sister.

Justice Lal Jan Khattak observed that the accused, Awais, a resident of Hazro area in Attock district, didn’t deserve to be extended the concession of bail.

The petitioner is charged in an FIR registered at the Charsadda police station by the father of a minor girl wherein he had charged him of kidnapping, keeping in illegal custody and raping his daughter who was aged around 15.

The complainant was represented by advocate Mehwish Muhib Kakakhel, who is also a member of the special committee constituted by the prime minister under an ordinance on rape.

Ms Mehwish said the girl went to the school on the day of the crime but didn’t return and that after five to six days, she escaped from the house of the accused and contacted her family, who recovered her afterwards.

She added that the next day, the girl recorded a statement with a judicial magistrate in Charssada nominating the accused for the offence.

The lawyer said the accused and the child were foster siblings and cousins and that the accused wanted to marry her but being foster siblings, the proposal was rejected and therefore, he kidnapped her and repeatedly raped her in confinement.

She argued that the accused faced the charge of a heinous offence, so he was not entitled to bail under the Code of Criminal Procedure.

The counsel argued that the law didn’t allow bail to those accused of committing crimes punishable by death or life imprisonment, whereas kidnapping with the intent to compel a minor or a woman for marriage was punishable with life imprisonment.

She added that medical examination of the child proved the sexual assault.

The lawyer said the call data record of the accused’s mobile phone also supported the prosecution’s case.

She said the rape of minors was a menace, which needed to be dealt with an iron hand, and therefore, the court should deny the bail to the accused deter other criminals.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2021