KARACHI: The administrative judge of antiterrorism courts remanded on Wednesday a suspect in police custody in cases pertaining to rape of five minor girls.

The suspect has been booked in five cases registered at the Shah Latif Town, Sukkan and Quaidabad police stations for allegedly subjecting five girls aged between seven and eight years to sexual assaults from 2015 to 2018.

Investigating officers produced the suspect before the administrative judge and submitted that DNA test reports had confirmed his involvement in the cases.

The two IOs sought the custody of the suspect for questioning and the administrative judge handed him over to the police on physical remand till April 25.

The police said in the remand papers that the suspect had allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl after abducting her in Quaidabad on Dec 13, 2015, another girl of the same age in Shah Latif Town on Nov 14, 2016, and also sexually assaulting a seven-year-old girl in a Quaidabad locality on Dec 19, 2016.

He has also been booked in two other cases for allegedly raping two eight-year-old girls in December 2017 and February 2018 in Shah Latif Town and Sukkan.

The cases was registered under Sections 376 (punishment for rape), 363 (punishment for kidnapping) and 34 (common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 on the complaints of victims’ families.

60-year-old seminary teacher remanded in rape case

The same court remanded on Wednesday a seminary teacher in police custody in a rape and extortion case.

The suspect, around 60 years old, was arrested on April 4 for allegedly raping his teenage student and filming the offence in the seminary in Korangi around four years ago and later blackmailing her parents in order to extort money.

The investigating officer produced him before the administrative judge and informed the court that initially physical remand of the suspect was obtained from a judicial magistrate; later the section of offence of extortion and relevant section of the anti-terror law were incorporated in the FIR.

The IO contended that the suspect was also involved in some other identical cases and he had also recorded statements of three other victims and sought the custody of the suspect for questioning.

The court handed him over to the IO on physical remand till April 21.

Initially, an FIR was registered under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the PPC on the complaint of the victim’s father at the Korangi police station.

Later Section 384 (punishment for extortion) of the PPC read with Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997 were also incorporated in the case.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2018