A sessions court has awarded a collective sentence of 13 years in prison to a man in a rape case. Najeeb Ahmed, alias Bobi, was found guilty of sexually abusing an 18-year-old girl multiple times through blackmail and criminal intimidation within the jurisdiction of the Madina Colony police station last year.
Additional Sessions Judge (West) Irshad Hussain pronounced his order after recording evidence and final arguments from both sides. He observed that the prosecution successfully proved its case against the accused beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt.
“I found evidence and connected material which shows that the act of rape has been committed by the accused,” ruled the judge, sentencing the convict to 10 years in jail for offence punishable under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The accused was also awarded three-year imprisonment for committing offence of criminal intimidation as defined under the Section 506 of the PPC. He was ordered to pay a total fine of Rs150,000 or undergo additional nine-month imprisonment.
According to state prosecutor Jameela Saeed, the victim’s nikah had been solemnised, but her Rukhsati had not taken place. The woman had been in contact with her groom-to-be over the phone without her family’s knowledge. She later started receiving calls from the convict who threatened to disclose her secret conversation with her groom-to-be to her family if she did not speak with him.
On June 25, 2023, Najeeb blackmailed the victim into meeting him and he took her to his house where he sexually assaulted her at gunpoint. The accused also recorded her obscene video and used the same as a blackmailing tool to abuse her several times later.
The victim testified that in 2023, she married a person, however her rukhsati had not taken place. She said she would talk with her husband over phone without the knowledge of her parents as it was not allowed in their family.
The woman said she started receiving messages from Najeeb, who would say that he was aware of conversations between her and her husband. The victim said the accused threatened to inform her parents and brother of her secret communication with her husband if she refused to meet him. She added that she became confused and scared, and decided to meet him.
The woman deposed that the accused took her on a motorcycle to a house in Faqeer Colony where he assaulted her. She said that later, she received a call from the accused who claimed that he had filmed the incident and threatened her that if she told anyone about the sexual assault, he would make the video public.
The victim said the accused assaulted her several times before she mustered courage to disclose her ordeal to her mother, after which an FIR was lodged against the accused.
In his statement, the accused claimed innocence stating that he knew the entire family of the victim and was friends with her brother. He claimed that the victim was in love with him and insisted that he should marry her and upon his refusal, she leveled allegations against him.
Published in News Daily on 27 August 2024.
