Daily Times

LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: A division bench of the Lahore High Court on Monday observed that police had not shown seriousness in dealing with the growing cases of rape and sodomy involving minors since 2015.

While hearing a suo motu case as well as petitions regarding the rape and murder of Zainab in Kasur, the LHC bench headed by Chief Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah observed that if police had taken action in 2015 ? when the first case against a serial killer was reported in Kasur ? the rape and murder of seven-year-old girl in Kasur could have been prevented.

The bench directed the police officials to employ multiple means of investigation to nab the culprits involved in the brutal murder.

An additional inspector general of Punjab police (AIG) submitted report about progress in the case. Bench directed the police to submit a comprehensive progress report till Wednesday (tomorrow). It also directed the inspector general of Punjab police and head of the JIT to ensure their presence in court on the next hearing.

The bench also sought personal appearance of the education secretary to inform the court about steps being taken, if any, for raising awareness among children about sexual abuse.

The AIG in its report stated that the DNA analysis in the Zainab case had established that the suspect(s) had also been involved in at least eight such cases since 2015. The report stated that a team of Punjab Forensic Science Agency (PFSA) stationed in Kasur had collected DNA samples of prime suspects and that so far 96 samples had been obtained while over 200 suspects had been interrogated in detail.

A crime chart presented before the court showed that as many as 252 cases of rape with girls under the age of 10 had been registered in the province during 2016-17 and trials in 206 cases were pending with four convictions and 25 acquittals. The report stated that during the same period, as many as 1,045 cases of sodomy with minor boys had been registered, out of which 788 cases were under trial with seven convictions and 139 acquittals.

The report stated that 24 cases of rape-cum-murder involving minor girls had been reported in Punjab from 2016 to 2017, with four convictions and one acquittal while 13 were still pending before the trial courts.

At least 19 cases of murder of minor boys after sodomy had been registered with four convictions and one acquittal.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Punjab inspector general of police and advocate general Punjab to appear before it on Tuesday (today) in Zainab murder case.

The IGP submitted in the Supreme Court the medical examination report containing details of the postmortem of the deceased. According to the report, Zainab’s body was partially covered in mud and her remains were decayed. She had also suffered multiple injuries including bone fractures, etc.

It said a large number of CCTV footages acquired from various cameras installed on nearby streets were examined by a number of officials when the IT team managed to rummage through and pull out the video footage of the unidentified suspect taking Zainab to the remote area of Peru Wala Road in Kasur.

It said a number of measures were being taken by the provincial police department to trace the culprit. It said a sketch of the suspect has already been released besides announcement of prize money of Rs 10 million for anyone who could reveal relevant information about the whereabouts of the suspect.

Published in Daily Times, January 16^th 2018.