PESHAWAR: A child protection court here has acquitted a medical doctor arrested on charges of sexually assaulting his 12-year-old sister-in-law over two years ago.

The court presided over by the additional sessions judge, Mohammad Haneef, pronounced after completion of trial that prosecution failed to prove its case against the accused and evidence on record didn’t connect him with commission of the offence.

The accused was arrested after the occurrence, which took place early in 2023, and had remained behind the bars since then.

The alleged victim and her family members had gone to the US after the occurrence. They are reportedly having the US nationality. The wife of the accused had also reportedly taken divorce from him afterward.

FIR of crime was registered two years ago at Hayatabad police station

The alleged victim and her father had recorded their statements from the US through video link.

The FIR of the occurrence was registered at Hayatabad police station, Peshawar, on Feb 6, 2023, under different provisions of Pakistan Penal Code and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Child Protection and Welfare Act.

The alleged victim had claimed that her parents had gone out of their residence and she and her elder brother were at home along with her brother-in-law (accused). She alleged that she was alone at TV lounge when the accused approached her and forcibly assaulted her.

The defence counsel, Shabbir Hussain Gigyani, argued that his client was implicated in a concocted case. He argued that the FIR of the occurrence was registered after a delay of 10 days, which clearly proved that it was a conspiracy.

He contended that medical evidence didn’t clearly prove that the alleged victim had been sexually assaulted. He added that the clothes sent for DNA sampling, which the prosecution claimed belonged to the victim, were also sent for analysis after 12 days of the alleged occurrence.

The counsel contended while the prosecution claimed that the DNA sampling matched with that of the accused, it couldn’t be proved that the said clothes belonged to the victim or her sister, who was wife of the accused. He added that apparently the evidence had been fabricated.

He argued that the accused was a medical doctor and had been behind bars for over two-and-a-half years. He stated that there were several loopholes in the prosecution case and the accused couldn’t be convicted unless the case was proved without any shadow of doubt.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2025