Child’s rape-murder case: Supreme Court gives police chief two weeks to submit report

Court directed the IGP to personally supervise the case, expresses mistrust in junior officers’ abilities.

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Inspector General (IG) of the Islamabad Police Bani Amin to personally supervise investigations into the brutal murder of an 11-year-old-girl after she was allegedly raped.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry along with justices Gulzar Ahmed and Sheikh Azmat Saeed took up the case after the CJ took sou motu notice of the murder and attempted incineration of the body of the child.

Serious questions were raised over the competency of junior police officers to investigate the heinous crime. The CJ observed that the story presented in the case was unsatisfactory as many aspects had been ignored.

The police recovered the charred body of Sehr* from a drain in Sector 1-9 on February 16. She had gone missing after leaving her house in Bhara Kahu on February 13.

Justice Chaudhry was not satisfied by the IGP’s responses and questioned whether or not the police had tracked down the man who called the I-9 police to inform them of the location of the body.

Referring to the arrest of a 60-year-old man for his alleged role in the crime, the CJP also observed that police should look at angles beyond the obvious.



The SC directed the IGP to submit a complete and comprehensive investigation report before the next hearing, which is scheduled for March 4.

Earlier, the IG had informed the court that they had arrested Qamar*, a retired Punjab government employee and his daughter Maha*, a final year student at National University of Modern Languages. The two had obtained pre-arrest interim bail.

Amin said the first FIR was registered with the Bhara Kahu police on the complaint of Sehr’s father.

According to the FIR, Sehr used to go for tuition to Maha’s house every evening, however on February 13, Maha asked her to come at around 11am instead.

Sehr went for tuition with her younger brother Babar*. When they reached Maha’s house, Qamar asked Babar to go to the nearby market and get a few juice boxes. When Babar got back, he was told that his sister had gone back home. However, Sehr never reached her house.

The capital’s police chief added that a man named Sami* had been apprehended from the locality where the body had been recovered from.

The body had been burnt beyond recognition, however, he said the victim’s mother recognised the body from her clothes. *Names changed to protect identities

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2013.