KARACHI: A model court on Monday awarded death sentence to an accused of abducting, raping and strangling a six-year-old girl in 2006.

M. Irshad was found guilty of abducting the then six-year-old girl and strangling her after rape in a Gulistan-i-Jauhar locality.

Additional district and sessions’ judge Haleem Ahmed of the model criminal trial court (East) pronounced his verdict reserved after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides.

The judge handed down death sentence to the accused on three counts.

The judge remanded the accused, who was produced during the hearing, to the prison to serve out his sentence.

According to the prosecution, the victim went missing on Oct 9, 2006 after she went out of her house. Later, her friend told the victim’s parents that Irshad had asked her to come to an open plot in the evening, where he would give her toys, it added.

The prosecution further mentioned that the parents of the missing child registered a case and subsequently Irshad was arrested.

In 2012, the trial court had awarded life imprisonment to the accused. However, the Federal Shariat Court in 2014 remanded the case back for retrial.

State prosecutor Anwar Mahar contended that there was sufficient evidence to connect the role of the accused to the commissioning of the crime as alleged by the prosecution.

He asked the court to punish the accused strictly in accordance with the law.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2020