MUZAFFARABAD: A man accused of raping and subsequently impregnating his wife’s young niece some eight months ago in Jhelum Valley district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was remanded by a judicial magistrate in police custody for two weeks on Wednesday.

Manzar Hussain, station house officer (SHO) of City police in Hattian Bala, told Dawn that the 45 years old suspect was arrested by a team, led by him, from his rented residence in Karachi’s Korangi Town area within a week of registration of the First Information Report (FIR) on the complaint of the victim who turns 15 in February next.

Giving details, the SHO said the victim’s father used to do odd jobs to eke out a living and the Karachi-based suspect, who is her maternal aunt’s husband, would stay at their place whenever on a visit to his hometown.

In April this year, during the holy month of fasting, the suspect who had arrived from Karachi a few days ago and was staying at the victim’s place took advantage of the absence of her parents who had gone to attend some event in another village and raped her, he said.

AJK police team arrest suspect from Karachi

The suspect threatened the girl of dire consequences, if she shared the incident with anyone, he added.

However, when the victim’s condition deteriorated, her mother got her medically examined in Muzaffarabad on the advice of some of her schoolteachers only to know that she was seven to eight months pregnant, SHO Hussain said.

He said after lodging the FIR he concealed it lest its publicity might alert the suspect and travelled to Karachi with some subordinates to apprehend him.

“Accompanied by the victim’s father, when weknocked on the door of the suspect’s house he came out himself but sensing the matter the women inside the household called local police to avert arrest,”he said.

“To our surprise, the local [Zaman Town] SHO arrived on the scene within a short time and instead of handing over the culprit to us, he took him to the police station,” SHO Hussain said.

According to him, the Karachi police were maintaining that they could not hand over a wanted accused to AJK police unless the matter was taken up by AJK Home Department with the Sindh Home Department.

However, since both the temporary and permanent addresses on the CNIC of the culprit were of his Ser Bagla village near Hattian Bala, the AJK police team succeeded in bringing him to Azad Kashmir after three days but only after the concerned judicial magistrate [district judge] granted the ‘transit remand’.

The SHO said the suspect had confessed to raping the girl “only once” during his stay at his sister-in-law’s house in Ramazan.

“We will shift him to the judicial lockup at the end of his two-week physical remand,” he said.

Mr Hussain said police had got the suspect medically examined in addition to obtaining his DNA sample.

“His DNA sample and that of the baby [after delivery] will be sent to the Forensic Science Lab in Lahore and the case will be challaned after the receipt of the report,”he added.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2021