Police remand of rape suspect extended
KARACHI: A former medico-legal officer booked and arrested for raping a trainee nurse at the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre was on Tuesday remanded in police custody till July 26.
Judicial Magistrate (south) Zulfiqar Ali extended the physical remand of the rape suspect for six more days at the request of the investigation officer (IO) of the case. The suspect was brought to the city courts in an ambulance and the IO, appearing before Judicial Magistrate (south) Abdul Qadir, submitted that the suspect was injured and the police could not produce him in court, which is on the second floor of the building.
The IO prayed to the magistrate to examine the suspect in the ambulance and extend his physical remand. However, the magistrate turned down the request.
The IO then submitted an application before the district and sessions judge (south) and said that the suspect could not be produced before the magistrate concerned on medical grounds and prayed to the court to direct any other judicial magistrate having his/her court on the ground floor to extend the remand of the suspect.
The district and sessions judge directed the 1st judicial magistrate (south) whose courtroom is on the ground floor of the sessions courts (south) building to take up the matter.
The IO and the lawyers for the complainant appeared before the 1st judicial magistrate, Zulfiqar Ali, and stated that the investigation had not yet been completed since the police got the custody of the suspect from hospital on the evening of July 18.
They said further interrogations were needed in order to arrest the remaining suspects and to unseal the place of the incident in the presence of the suspect. The police sought an extension in the suspect’s physical remand.
However, the suspect’s counsel said that his client was still unwell and needed medical treatment. He requested the court to send him back to hospital.
After hearing both sides, the judicial magistrate came out of his courtroom to look at the suspect. The magistrate examined the suspect outside the ambulance and extended his physical remand till July 26 and directed the IO to produce him in court on the next date.
The magistrate ruled that he had seen the suspect and there was no plaster on his injured leg. The suspect was discharged from a private hospital and “it appears from the discharge summary that he could walk on a walker with non-weight bearing on his injured leg”, the magistrate added.
Earlier on July 16, the court remanded the suspect in police custody on till July 20.
Meanwhile, some activists gathered outside the court and chanted slogans against the suspect.
According to the prosecution, a 22-year-old trainee nurse had jumped from the window of an apartment, which was in the possession of the former MLO, to save her life when she was allegedly assaulted by him. She was found in an unconscious condition on 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.
A case (FIR 332/2010) was registered under Section 324 (attempted murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code against the MLO on the complaint of Mohammad Akram Janjua of the JPMC at the Saddar police station. Later, in the light of initial medical reports, Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the PPC was also incorporated in the FIR.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/21/2010
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