PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court has turned down the bail pleas of two men arrested on the charges of abducting and sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Swat district over a month ago.

Justice Mohammad Naeem Anwar of a single-member bench observed that tentatively, sufficient evidence was available on record which showed the prima facie nexus of the two petitioners with the commission of the offence.

He observed that the offence was of heinous and serious nature, so the petitioners were not entitled to the concession of bail.

The FIR of the two crimes was registered at Swat’s Saidu Sharif police station on May 29, 2023, under sections 365-B, 376, 506 and 34 of the Pakistan penal Code.

The complainant in the case was the alleged assault victim, who accused the petitioners of blackmailing, abducting, intimidating and raping her.

PHC declares evidence apparently linked petitioners with offences

The girl claimed that she was in contact with one of the suspects over the telephone but later asked him not to contact her in future prompting him to blackmail and threaten her that he would inform her brother about their contact.

She said one night, she was asked by that suspect to step out of her house and when she did that, he forcibly took her away in a vehicle and subjected her to sexual assault in the vehicle.

The complainant accused the other suspect, too, of raping her.

She said as the suspects were later taking her to Mingora city, the police stopped the car at a checkpost and recovered her.

The police officials also insisted that when they stopped the car, they found the suspects on the front seats of the car, while a girl sitting on the back seat was visibly scared.

They claimed that the girl later disclosed the crimes committed by the suspects against her.

The bench also observed that examination of the records revealed that the petitioners had been “caught red-handed” when their vehicle was stopped by the police and the girl was found with them.

It added that the abductee had reported the matter to the police after her recovery directly naming the petitioners for her abduction and rape.

The bench ruled that the “mode and manner” of arrest of the petitioners and recovery of the girl from their possession prima facie supported her account in the FIR, suggesting their involvement in the commission of the offence.

It also observed that the medical evidence available on record prima facie augmented the allegations against the petitioners.

A court in Swat rejected the bail pleas of the two suspects on Jun 6, 2023.

It observed that in rape cases, the statement of the alleged victim alone was sufficient to connect the accused with the commission of the offence if the same inspired confidence.

The court added that in the current case, the statement of the alleged rape victim was recorded under sections 161 and 164 of the CrPC coupled with the arrest of the two petitioners at the time of her abduction along with recovery of the vehicle used for the offence, which supported the version of the girl against the petitioners.

Published in Dawn, July 2nd, 2023