Forensic evidence: LHC dismisses bail plea of rape accused

DNA test links accused to raped girl’s child.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Thursday dismissed the bail application of a landlord from Pakpattan accused of rape and ordered police to arrest him.

The raped girl had given birth to a baby boy. The investigation officer on Thursday presented a DNA report to the court which confirmed that the accused was the biological father of the child.

After reading the report, Justice Manzoor Ahmed Malik told the counsel for the accused that it would be best for him to withdraw the bail application. The lawyer agreed.

The complaint was registered on the application of the victim’s uncle, Daim Ali, at Chak Bedi police station. It said that Hanif would rape the victim repeatedly at her home. He said that he had gone visiting his niece on December 21, 2011 when a man pointed a gun at him and told him to go back.

He said that he entered the house and saw Rao Hanif raping his niece. He said the man pointed a pistol at him and left the house.

He said that when he asked his niece, she said that Hanif had been raping her for five months and that she was pregnant. She told him that she had been threatened to not tell anyone.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Daim Ali said that the girl’s father was mentally retarded and her mother did not live with them. He said that since she was the eldest child and nobody had guided her about registering a complaint against Hanif before he himself witnessed the rape.

He said that she gave birth to a boy on April 23, 2012, four months after the registration of the FIR. He said the family had decided to hide the girl and her son. He said her nikkah to Fauji on April 27, 2006 but she never went and lived with him. After the rape revelation, her husband divorced the girl. He said that the accused was given interim bail four times without ever having appeared in a court.

In his petition, Hanif had denied the charges. He also said the alleged victim was a married woman living with her husband. He said that he had submitted an application to the Pakpattan District and Sessions Judge for a DNA test. He said police should be ordered not to arrest him before the DNA report was available.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2012.