JPMC doctor booked for trainee nurse’s rape | Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF)

Pakistan Press Foundation

JPMC doctor booked for trainee nurse’s rape

KARACHI: A medico-legal officer of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, who has already been arrested for trying to kill a trainee nurse, was on Thursday booked for raping her amid protests calling for strict legal action against the doctor and a clean-up operation in the hostels.

Sindh Health Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad confirmed to Dawn that the trainee nurse was indeed subjected to a sexual assault. He said his assessment was based on the findings of a health department inquiry committee that had been entrusted with the task of looking into the assault on the trainee nurse allegedly by an MLO of the JPMC.

He added that there would have been more disclosures if the victim had been able to speak to the inquiry committee.

Police said that they had received an initial medical examination report from the JPMC stating that the victim had been subjected to a sexual assault. They added that the relevant section of the penal code had been incorporated in the original FIR registered at the Saddar police station.

An investigation officer informed a judicial magistrate about this development in the case on Thursday afternoon and requested that the suspected rapist be remanded in police custody for 14 days without him being produced in court.

He added that the suspect could not be brought to the court of the judicial magistrate because of his poor health.

However, the judicial magistrate turned down the IO’s request and directed him to produce the suspected rapist in court at the earliest.

Earlier, the IO, Sub-Inspector Rao Shamim, submitted a report under Section 167 of the criminal procedure code before the judicial magistrate (south), Abdul Qadir.

In his report, the IO stated that the FIR was originally registered under Section 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code, but Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the PPC was incorporated in it after the initial medical examination report confirmed that the victim was also sexually assaulted.

The IO said that the victim, who was admitted to the JPMC on Tuesday evening, was unable to record her statement because she was still unconscious. He further said that the suspect, who was arrested on July 14, had also not been interrogated because he was under treatment at a private hospital.

The judicial magistrate ruled that the law did not permit him to remand the suspect in police custody without him being produced in court.

According to the FIR, the victim – a student of the nursing school at the JPMC – jumped from the window of an apartment, which was in the possession of the MLO of the JPMC, to save her life when she was allegedly attacked by him.

She was found in an unconscious condition in the lawn of a mess in the JPMC residential area on July 13 and a few minutes later, the MLO with bruises on his body was spotted there.

According to the report issued by the medico-legal office of the JPMC, after conducting a medical examination of the 22-year-old victim Dr Farida Mobin is of the opinion that the victim was indeed subjected to a sexual assault.

However, the victim’s swabs were taken, sealed and handed over to the investigation officer for a chemical analysis and DNA testing, it added.

A case (FIR No 332/2010) was registered against the MLO on the complaint of Mohammad Akram Janjua of the JPMC at the Saddar police station.

Meanwhile, protesting nurses, students and technicians criticised the JPMC administration for allowing the MLO to be shifted to a private hospital for treatment.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/16/2010