KARACHI: A judicial magistrate on Tuesday remanded in police custody the owner of a shelter home and her son for two days in a case pertaining to the rape of a minor girl.

Police arrested the young son and female owner of the shelter home in Korangi’s Allah Wala Town.

On Tuesday, the investigating officer produced the suspects before a judicial magistrate (East) to seek their physical remand for questioning.

The IO submitted that the victim had left her home after her stepfather and his brother acted inappropriately following the death of her mother.

She took temporary shelter at the facility, but the owner’s young son allegedly subjected her to a sexual assault, the IO said.

He said that the police had brought the victim to the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre for a medical examination and doctors had obtained DNA samples for cross-matching.

The IO said that the medical examination report was still awaited, while other legal formalities were also to be fulfilled to complete the investigation. Therefore, he said the custody of the suspects was required for interrogation for 14 days.

However, the court declined the IO’s request and remanded the suspects in police custody for two days.

The magistrate also told the IO to incorporate relevant sections of the Anti-Rape (Investigation and Trial) Act, 2021, in the FIR and submit an investigation report accordingly on the next date.

A case was registered under Sections 376 (punishment for rape), 109 (abetment) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2023