A sessions court has sentenced a man to seven years imprisonment for sexually abusing a minor boy. Saifullah alias Qari was found guilty of assaulting a ten-year-old boy in the Kashmir Colony within the jurisdiction of the Mahmoodabad police station in November 2022.
Additional Sessions Judge (South) Ashraf Hussain Khowaja ruled that apart from a few contradictions of a minor nature in the prosecution evidence, which he termed immaterial, the case has been established against the accused.
The judge awarded seven-year imprisonment to the convict for offence punishable under sections 377-E (unnatural offence with the child where the age of the victim is less than fourteen years) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).
The convict was ordered to pay a fine of Rs50,000 or undergo an additional three-month imprisonment. The judge observed that the victim’s child as well as medical evidence fully supported the prosecution case. He pointed out that the investigation officer did not record the statement of any neighbour at the time of the site inspection and no eyewitness was available.
“In this regard, this court is of the humble opinion that in cases of rape and sodomy, no eyewitness would be available as these acts are always committed in isolation and no eyewitness is required if the solitary statement of the victim is trustworthy and confidence-inspiring,” the judge wrote in the detailed verdict.
According to state prosecutor Irfana Qadri, the accused subjected the boy to sexual abuse at the former’s residence in Kashmir Colony on November 23, 2022. The prosecutor contended that there was sufficient evidence to link the present accused with the commissioning of the offence.
Advocate Bahzad Akbar of the Legal Aid Society, who represented the complainant, argued that the child fully implicated the accused in the case, adding that medical evidence also supported the prosecution’s version.
The victim testified that he was playing in the street when his neighbour, Saifullah alias Qari, called him and gave him Rs100 to buy milk. Recounting his ordeal, he said he purchased milk and went to his house where he was alone. The minor said the accused assaulted him and threatened him not to disclose the incident to anybody.
In his statement recorded under Section 342 of the CrPC, the accused denied prosecution allegations and claimed to be innocent. An FIR was lodged under Section 377 (unnatural offence) of the PPC on the complaint of the victim’s mother.
Published in News Daily on 10-August-2024.
