PIMS rape case: Kumar demands trial in open court

Challenges order to hold trial inside Adiala Jail

ISLAMABAD: A male nurse of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), incarcerated in Adiala jail for allegedly raping a patient, has challenged the administration’s orders for holding his trial inside the jail instead of in an open court.

Superintendent of the Adiala Jail had on August 18 requested the Additional District and Sessions Judge Raja Asif Mehmood, to conduct the trial of Krishan Kumar inside the jail. The jail administration had explained that the Islamabad chief commissioner had sanctioned a trial for the suspect inside the jail. Following the sanction, the suspect had not been taken to the district courts.

However, earlier this month the suspect filed an application in the same court challenging the administration’s order to hold his trial inside the jail premises.

Kumar maintained that the chief commissioner’s order was against the settled principles of law.

In the application filed through his lawyer, Zahid Asif Chaudhry, Kumar said the chief commissioner did not provide any valid reasons while issuing the orders.

“Only the court is the competent authority to decide the venue of the trial rather than an administrative authority,” Kumar’s application reads. He requested the court to hold his trial at the district courts in order to avoid any prejudice in the case.

The court has sought the administration’s reply on the matter by October 26, the next date of hearing in the case.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 16^th, 2016.