KARACHI: Four minor rape survivors identified a suspected serial rapist before a judicial magistrate while recording their statements on Thursday.

Investigating officer (IO) Muhammad Sajjad produced the suspect before Judicial Magistrate (South) Kalsoom Mustafa Sahto, while the survivor girls also appeared before the court to record their statements.

According to the prosecution, the four victims identified the suspected rapist before the magistrate while recording their statements under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).

The victim girls stated that the suspect had lured them to his house, where he subjected them to a sexual assault, it added.

The statements were recorded in the judge’s chamber in both written and video form, in the presence of the state prosecutor, the suspect and the complainant’s counsel.

The prosecution added that out of the six FIRs registered against the suspect for rape, statements from the survivors have been recorded in only three cases so far.

The victim girls were produced before the judge one by one, and each narrated their ordeal. Among them was the victim who had taken a USB from the suspect’s house which contained over a hundred explicit videos.

She took that USB to a video shop for the purpose of downloading music onto it, but the shop owner detected the presence of explicit content on the drive and informed area residents, who apprehended the suspect and beat him up before handing him over to the police.

The prosecution claimed that the videos have been sent to Punjab for forensic examination, while the suspect is in police custody till Sept 19 for further interrogation.

At least six separate cases have been registered at the Defence police station under Sections 376 (iii) and 377 of the Pakistan Penal Code, while another FIR was lodged on the complaint of the state against the suspect under Section 11/3 of the Sindh Information of Temporary Residents Act.

The police said that the suspect had been residing in a rented house without any tenancy agreement, which constituted an offence under the Act.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2025