Police to keep suspect’s son for questioning

His father has been accused of detaining a step daughter and sexually assaulting her

LAHORE: A judge on Monday disposed of a petition seeking recovery of a man held by police after being told that he was being interrogated in a case against his father.

The investigation officer told the court that the man, identified just as Awais, had been remanded in police custody for five days to question him about the whereabouts of his father who was accused of kidnapping his step daughter with the intention of sexually assaulting her (in an FIR registered with Defence A police). Awais’s counsel then requested the court to convert his habeas corpus petition into a pre-arrest bail plea. The request was declined.  In the FIR registered against Asghar Ali under Section 496-A (enticing or taking away or detaining a woman with criminal intent) of the Pakistan Penal Code, complainant Maryam Bibi, mother of the detained child, said he had taken his step daughter for an outing on August 14. She said the two had not returned home since then. She said she feared that the suspect would sexually assault her child. She asked the police to interrogate Ali’s son Awais about his whereabouts.

On Monday, Mariam Bibi appeared before the court to record a statement against her husband. She requested the court to direct the police to track down her daughter.

Speaking to The Express Tribune after the hearing, Mariam Bibi said that she had married Ali after the death of her first husband hoping that he would support her and her daughter.

She said she feared that her husband would sexually assault the child because he had done that earlier in the year. “My daughter came to me crying and told me about it,” she said. She said when she confronted him he had apologised .  She said that earlier in the year, Asghar had got the child kidnapped. She said she had to pay Rs200,000 to her husband for the child’s recovery. Mariam Bibi said she did not report the matter to police because she feared that it would lead to end of her marriage and endanger her daughter’s life.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 29^th, 2015.