KARACHI: Rejecting the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) request to extend physical remand, a judicial magistrate on Saturday sent social worker Sarim Burney to jail on judicial remand in a case pertaining to “child trafficking by way of illegal adoption”, which has been registered after complaint of US authorities.

Officer Bilal Ahmed brought Mr Burney before Judicial Magistrate (East) Khaliqul Zaman, after completing the first remand and sought an extension for further interrogation.

The IO informed the court that interrogation of Mr Burney was incomplete and they needed further time to recover remaining crucial record pertaining to children adopted by families abroad on the information of the suspect.

He also claimed that Mr Burney did not provide records, adding that the “statements under Section 161 of the CrPC of prosecution witnesses and other concerned person are to be recorded”.

Defence counsel say social worker was falsely implicated in child trafficking case

Meanwhile, the FIA’s counsel informed the court that Mr Burney had not been cooperating with the investigation agency and had failed to provide satisfactory answers to any questions posed to him.

The counsel also sought an additional week for remand to scrutinise records requested from digital, financial, and US intelligence sources.

The FIA’s counsel also cited the case mentioned in the FIR, stating that the child, who had been declared unclaimed in the family court, was allegedly sold by her mother Afsheen to another person.

According to the FIR: “As per oral evidence of Madiha, Bushra (Bushra had given this statement to M/s Sarim Burney Trust which later on produced to FIA by Humaira Naz) and statement of Afsheen Muhammad Ali (biological/real mother of the baby) that the said baby girl is the real daughter of Afsheen [who] is resident of Yaroo Goth Surjani Town, who sold her baby to Bushra through Madiha against Rs350,000 (the deal of purchase of the said baby was made between Madiha and Bushra against Rs600,000, however, Afsheen received amount of Rs350,000 from Madiha). The said baby girl got adopted in the garb of purchasing by Bushra Ayaz and Ayaz Khan through Madiha w/o Danish Ali running/operating ultrasound/maternity clinic at Yousuf Goth, Surjani Town.”

The counsel also claimed that the trust had collected USD 3,000 from an adopting family while submitting the receipt before the court. The court asked the defence counsel whether they had collected this amount, to which the counsel responded that the amount was collected as ‘legal fees’.

Responding to the allegations against Mr Burney, his legal team, including advocates Aamir Nawaz Warraich, Aijaz Hussain Khatak, and Muhammad Nawaz Dahri, denied the allegations and claimed the FIA falsely implicated his client in this case.

Advocate Warraich told the court that his client was ready to give his statement and to cooperate with the IO if appropriate questions were posed.

The court then ordered the IO to record the statement of Mr Burney.

After resuming the proceedings, the court announced that it had rejected the IO’s request and remanded Mr Burney in judicial custody.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2024