Justice delivered: Court awards custody of two teenage sisters to mother

Stepfather allegedly raped one, married the other while still married to their mother.

ISLAMABAD:

A local court on Saturday awarded custody of two teenage girls to their mother, during a case in which their stepfather had allegedly raped one of the girls and married the other while still married to their mother.

The Women Police Station had registered a case against the man on September 3 after his 13-year-old stepdaughter reported that he had raped her several times.

She also told the police that the man had married her 17-year-old sister without first divorcing their mother.

The police arrested the alleged rapist from the family’s house in G-11 on September 3 and a magistrate sent the man on judicial remand the same day. The girls and their mother were sent to a shelter home but custody of the girls on Saturday was awarded to their mother by a local court.

According to the police, the family is from Sargodha and are professional beggars. The family had moved to Islamabad five years ago, before moving to Karachi for a short period.

During the initial interrogation, the man confessed to marrying his stepdaughter but said the marriage certificate was burnt in a house fire. The police were trying to obtain a copy of the marriage certificate from Karachi, where the man claimed the Nikah took place.

However, they have not succeeded in retrieving the official record so far, a Women Police Station official said. The police are also waiting to receive the medical reports.

The police said the man continuously changed his statements and has not confessed to raping his younger stepdaughter.

According to the police, the 27-year-old man had married the girls’ mother eight years ago. Incidentally, the woman was married to the man’s maternal uncle and had four children with him before they divorced.

He then married his stepdaughter two years ago. The mother told the police she had tried to stop her husband, but he threatened to kill her and went ahead with the marriage.

The man has been booked on charges of rape and cohabitation caused by a man deceitfully inducing a belief of lawful marriage.

Women Police Station House Officer Sadaf Basharat did not say why the police were looking for the marriage certificate. According to Islamic jurisprudence, men cannot marry a stepdaughter born of a wife with whom the marriage has been consummated.

The 13-year-old girl managed to reach the police with the help of a shelter. The girl was brought to the centre by an NGO worker who had seen her begging on the street and decided to help.

She told the police her stepfather had raped her several times and that she was caught every time she tried to escape.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.