KARACHI, Sept 20: The Judicial Magistrate-III, South, rejected the bail application of an accused person in the sodomy case of a 10-year-old boy on Thursday.

The accused, Syed Mohammad Zeeshan, had surrendered himself before the court on September 6 after remaining an absconder for nearly three months following the cancellation of his interim pre-arrest bail on May 21.

Following his surrender before the court, the accused was arrested and was given in jail custody on Sept 6.

The accused, a lineman of the PTCL, is being tried for subjecting Faisal Arsalan alias Bahadur to an unnatural offence on March 14 at Arambagh Park.

Judicial Magistrate Aurangzeb Alamgir on Thursday dismissed the bail application of accused Zeeshan, setting aside the arguments of the counsel representing the accused.

The counsel representing Arsalan opposed the bail application, pleading before the judge not to allow the bail in view of the serious nature of the case against the accused.

Earlier, according to the order passed on the bail application of Zeeshan by the First Additional District and Sessions Judge, Ghulam Mustafa Memon, on May 21, 2007, the judge dismissed the bail plea of the accused, observing that the investigation officer had collected sufficient material to connect the applicant (accused) to the commission of the crime.

According to the account of the boy’s mother, Hoor Bano, Arsalan, her only son, did not come home after dark on the evening of March 14. She went searching for him and found the boy in Arambagh Park weeping and in an injured condition. She discovered that he was bleeding and had injury marks on his face. The boy was taken to a private clinic where he was provided initial treatment.

As the respective police station didn’t issue a letter for the medical examination, the woman went to the Citizen’s Police Liaison Committee’s office, from where she was issued a referral letter.

Arsalan was examined by Dr Rafiq Ahmed Abbasi, Medico-Legal Officer of the Civil Hospital on March 16, 2007. He noticed that the boy’s injuries were two days old and according to him the boy was subjected to “carnal intercourse/sodomy.”

The case [FIR 141/2007 under Section 377/506-b of the Pakistan Penal Code] was registered at the Preedy police station.

Referring to the condition of the boy and his mother, Vice-Chairman of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust Sarim Burney said that “even after the lapse of six months since the incident, both mother and child are still living in fear. The young boy seems to be suffering in silence because of the trauma he endured. He has not been able to reconcile with the incident (and) has not been able to restart school again.”