RAWALPINDI, July 27: Anti Terrorist Court (ATC) No. 2 Special Judge Sakhi Mohammad Kahot on Friday deferred till August 29 the hearing in a sodomy and murder case of a teenaged boy with the commencement of summer holidays for judges.

According to the prosecution, the accused - Mohammad Arshad - lured the deceased, Danish Rehman, 16, into his house in Sadiqabad to have Aftari on November 1, 2005.

The accused then took him to his office situated in Islamabad’s F-9 Park where he strangled him after commiting sodomy. He threw the body in a ditch in the park and covered it with the help of a hired tractor to conceal his crime.

Police arrested Arshad on November 24, 2005, after the family of the deceased pointed finger at him. He confessed to his crime before a magistrate and helped police recover the boy’s body that was decomposed beyond recognition.

During the investigation it was revealed that the elder brother of the deceased, Mr Touseef, allegedly had illicit relationship with Arshad, who wanted to avenge the actions by making Danish a victim of sodomy. He killed the boy fearing the consequences if the crime was leaked.

Defence counsel Rab Nawaz Noon advocate, while questioning the investigation officer, contested the claim of the prosecution.

He said his client was forced to confess by the police. The body was unrecognisable at the time of exhumation and the act of sodomy could not be established through medical tests, he added.

The lawyer had been trying to establish that the deceased was abducted by unknown people for ransom and was killed when the amount was not received.

The case has been hanging in the balance for the last 20 months with little progress. So far 46 hearings had been conducted and only the prosecution had completed questioning the witnesses and evidence.