KARACHI: A court on Friday granted interim pre-arrest bail to three suspects allegedly involved in torturing a pregnant woman in Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

Abdul Nasir, Adil Khan and Mehmood Khalil were booked for physically assaulting Sana Akram over a petty dispute within the jurisdiction of the Sharea Faisal police station.

The video of the incident went viral on social media prompting Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah to direct the city police chief to arrest the person who attacked the innocent woman.

District and Sessions Judge (East) granted the trio bail against a surety of Rs30,000 each with direction to cooperate with the police during the investigation.

The matter was fixed for Aug 16 for confirmation or otherwise of their interim bail.

In the FIR, complainant Sana had stated that she worked as a domestic help at a flat in an apartment complex. She said on the night of Aug 5, her son Sohail, had come at the reception of the complex to give her food but Abdul Nasir, Adil Khan, Mehmood Khalil and others of the flat union did not allow him to go to the flat. When she came downstairs and asked as to why they were not allowing her son, Adil started using swear words and asked security guard Daud to beat her. The guard slapped her and kicked her.

The applicant had stated that she was five to six months pregnant and felt pain and became unconscious due to beating.

A case was registered under Sections 337 (Shajjah), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Pakistan Penal Code on the complaint of the victim.

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2022